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Russian
00:00:14
The first Russian region to phase out gas-fueled vehicles was named.00:00:18
Volvo announced their decision to phase out internal combustion engines.00:00:21
The UK will have ICE vehicles prohibited by 2030.00:00:24
CEO of Volkswagen stated that the end of internal combustion engines is at hand.00:00:29
The first Russian region to phase out gas-fueled vehicles was named.00:00:33
European manufacturers will only produce electric cars and hybrids.00:00:35
FIAT will stop the production of traditional engine vehicles by 2030.00:00:40
Washington will have gasoline-fueled vehicles banned by 2030.00:00:45
Volkswagen gives up ICE in favor of electric engines.00:00:49
Car manufacturers will stop producing internal combustion engines by 2025.00:00:53
Germany will place an embargo on ICE vehicles by the year 2030.00:01:02
The last generation of ICE vehicles is to be manufactured in 2026.00:01:07
Thanks, I guess, but I don't want to listen to this nonsense anymore.00:01:11
All of my long time viewers00:01:13
know that I am very skeptical about electric cars.00:01:17
And whenever I hear some eco-friendly bravado from green parties about the environment and the polar bears and whatnot,00:01:24
I honestly can't take them seriously.00:01:27
Apparently it's high time I explain why.00:01:30
Because it's quite common to hear something like...00:01:34
Who do you think you are, what about- what about our children?00:01:39
They will inherit this world from us and they'll suffocate.00:01:42
They'll have to eat plastic bottles for breakfast and they'll cry.00:01:48
Eat plastic bottles and suffocate.00:01:50
Is this the future you want for your children, you?!00:01:53
What about global warming? What about the carbonara footprint?00:01:58
Or what was that footprint called?00:02:00
The fuck knows what, but I know one thing.00:02:03
It's very-very important!00:02:05
Bitch.00:02:06
And there are like 84 variations of such nonsense00:02:09
constantly uttered by citizens of Moscow and Saint Petersburg00:02:12
who drink their organic latte from recyclable coffee cup.00:02:17
And then the ones who live in Chelyabinsk and Norilsk take a drag on some factory pipe like it's a cigarette and say:00:02:25
Yeah, go on, tell us about ecology,00:02:27
Instagram kids. Yup.00:02:30
Don't forget to post an ass pic afterwards.00:02:33
At least that'll be useful.00:02:36
And so, dear viewers,00:02:37
obviously there is a reason I laugh at this bigotry.00:02:41
There's no such thing as coincidence in this world and everything has some kind of logic to it.00:02:45
But meanwhile I'll go, fill the entire gas tank00:02:48
with my favorite high-octane gasoline.00:02:51
And with great pleasure I'll then burn it out.00:02:54
And you better go and fill the entire bowl of snacks.00:02:58
My new rolling r story is a fascinating one.00:03:01
This is what you'll learn today.00:03:04
Why and how steam vehicles00:03:06
and electric cars lost their competition with gas.00:03:10
And why everyone forgot about the alternative for a hundred years.00:03:14
How religious fanatics00:03:16
and pharmacists00:03:18
influenced the energy industry.00:03:21
How the mysterious gas killed workers at General Motors00:03:25
and why they print "unleaded fuel only" on the filler flaps.00:03:29
How only a few words can lead to the collapse of the power industries worldwide00:03:34
and cause global panic.00:03:36
How come gasoline and exhaust fumes are destroying the humanity.00:03:40
And if the electric cars can save us from the global ecological disaster.00:04:03
Asafiev. Rolling R Stories00:04:10
Divine Integration00:04:35
So...00:04:39
Why have you arrived?00:04:41
I want to buy a car.00:04:43
But I don't know it's history.00:04:45
It may have been cursed or hexed.00:04:48
Maybe you'll look into astral or something.00:04:52
Yes, I can look, but...00:04:56
The spirits need their pay.00:04:58
Take your money and put it here.00:05:03
Then close your eyes.00:05:08
I see, I see.00:05:11
Your metal steed is rushing along the roads.00:05:17
But I can't see it's mileage!00:05:22
The astral won't let me. It needs more money.00:05:30
Isolda Bling, Don't You Worry a Thing. StopSpell LLC00:05:39
700 136.00:05:47
Seven hundred thousand what?00:05:50
The price.00:05:52
What's all that now?00:05:53
A miracle!00:05:55
I just wanted to check a car.00:05:57
Like this?00:05:59
Check?00:06:00
It's way faster and safer to buy an Autoteka report.00:06:02
Okay now, off you go.00:06:04
I'm going, I'm going.00:06:06
Autoteka is an Avito service00:06:08
allowing you to check the history of the car you want to buy.00:06:12
So, what car do you need?00:06:15
Nissan Qashqai.00:06:16
Just open the Avito app00:06:19
and check all the matching units.00:06:21
Look, we can already see00:06:24
which lots were created by the verified owners00:06:28
and whether the car is sold on it's market price00:06:31
or even lower.00:06:33
The app can show you tips on that.00:06:35
So, here's quite an interesting lot.00:06:39
Made in 2018 and the mileage is fine.00:06:42
Fine option,00:06:44
but you'd better see the Autoteka report before you buy it.00:06:47
Not this, but Autoteka report.00:06:50
In the report you'll see00:06:53
all the vehicle characteristics.00:06:54
Down here is the info about the owner.00:06:57
No collaterals, no restrictions.00:07:00
And it only had one owner.00:07:02
Are you okay with that?00:07:03
Yeah.00:07:05
Then we scroll further to see the history of use.00:07:08
We see that the additional equipment was installed, which the owner stated in the lot description.00:07:14
Plus here, next to the inspection markers, we can see its mileage.00:07:19
It was last inspected earlier this year00:07:21
and repaired by the distributor.00:07:23
And here we see that it is the first time the vehicle is sold.00:07:26
And if we scroll even further, we can see the mileage chart.00:07:31
It looks nice, there are no huge spikes, which is a sign that everything is okay with the car.00:07:35
You should check this car out.00:07:37
I'll give you the link.00:07:39
Call the seller and buy the car safely.00:07:46
Eenie-meenie-miney-mo, let me in or let me go!00:07:54
Goddamn integrations.00:07:57
Rolling R Stories00:08:03
All in all, from driver's perspective00:08:05
the whole situation looks like this:00:08:08
here in Russia we couldn't care less.00:08:11
It's been literally a couple of years since we got fuses stable enough to handle an electric teapot.00:08:15
In some of the regions at least.00:08:17
And the vastness of our lands?00:08:18
Getting stuck in the middle of the forest00:08:20
where the only hole you can put a charger plug in00:08:23
is your own ass is not a great situation to be in.00:08:25
Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.00:08:27
Electric cars are just toys for rich people in Europe and Moscow.00:08:30
Be my guest, if that's what turns you on.00:08:32
People in Moscow and Saint Petersburg are out of their heads anyway.00:08:36
Painted some bike lanes in city centers,00:08:38
saying that bicyclists deserve rights too.00:08:40
Such nonsense.00:08:42
And honestly we're taking our time with implementing European standards.00:08:46
Not like Russians care about ecology as much as Europeans do.00:08:51
Technically, we could just let it go and say: "Do as you please,00:08:55
but we're feeling just fine using gasoline and gas.00:08:57
All our bears are dirty anyway. Who cares.00:09:01
So you just go and put your power plugs wherever you please.00:09:05
Just let us be.00:09:06
We're orthodox and we use gasoline. Bugger off."00:09:08
Well, technically you could say all that.00:09:11
That's it, end of story.00:09:13
Don't forget to subscribe and smash that like button.00:09:15
See you in the next episode.00:09:17
It's going to be even more fascinating.00:09:20
But, whether you like it or not, we're all part of global processes.00:09:23
And when all the corporations will start producing engines powered by electricity,00:09:28
recycled environmentalists00:09:30
or white magic, we won't be able to escape it.00:09:33
Nobody will consider our problems in their future projects.00:09:36
As a consequence, we'll have the same vehicles as everybody else00:09:40
and Lada Niva Travel.00:09:41
Lada Niva Travel is just like Lenin.00:09:43
Always with us and wants to be buried.00:09:46
That's why the things we'll drive in the foreseeable future00:09:50
and for the rest of our lives00:09:52
depends on international automobile companies.00:09:55
And a number of world leaders.00:09:56
Our future is being decided today.00:10:06
All things follow some kind of logic.00:10:09
Sometimes this logic can be obvious.00:10:11
For example, not messing with the electrical box00:10:15
is quite logical if you want to live.00:10:17
You touch it - you die.00:10:19
You don't touch it - you get to live another day.00:10:22
While in complex situations like global problems00:10:25
logic is not that obvious,00:10:27
as there are too many chess pieces present on the board.00:10:30
But this logic is still there.00:10:32
So to fully grasp the situation00:10:35
I started seeking this logic in the early days of auto industry.00:10:39
And the first question I needed to answer was:00:10:42
why exactly did internal combustion engine pass the test of time00:10:46
while electric engines and steam-powered cars didn't?00:11:06
Chapter 1. How Steam and Electricity Lost the Market00:11:11
At the dawn of automobile industry,00:11:13
which was in the 1900s,00:11:15
all the cars had the same price tag.00:11:17
A shitload of money to be exact.00:11:19
By the year 1910,00:11:21
the cheapest automobile on the market was Ford Model T.00:11:25
And in the year 191700:11:26
it blew all the competitors out of the water00:11:29
as it costed way cheaper that any other automobile produced by other companies.00:11:33
And for that we should thank good old Henry Ford00:11:37
and his conveyor-belt assembly process.00:11:38
We've already discussed his method and the rise of Ford in our documentary on Detroit.00:11:43
You should watch it some time.00:11:45
It's quite possible that if Ford put his faith in00:11:47
steam and electricity powered engines,00:11:49
modern world would be different from the one we know.00:11:53
But as we know, there is no "what if" in history.00:11:55
Whatever happened, happened.00:11:57
The only thing I can add...00:11:59
God bless you, Henry Ford, for putting your faith in internal combustion.00:12:03
I hope you're riding a V12 engine in heaven.00:12:07
Ford Model T was first made in 1908.00:12:10
As I hope you already know.00:12:12
And originally the whole assembly process00:12:15
lasted only twelve hours and a half.00:12:18
It was almost nothing by those times' standards.00:12:20
In two years,00:12:22
by 1910, Ford produced 12,000 copies of Model T,00:12:27
which were used by general public.00:12:30
By the year 1917,00:12:32
Ford's assembly process was beyond competition.00:12:35
In 1908 assembly of one Model T took a bit less than twelve hours and a half.00:12:41
In 1917 instead of twelve hours and a half, or 750 minutes,00:12:45
they could assemble an automobile in 93 minutes.00:12:49
Imagine that in the first decade00:12:51
of the 20th century.00:12:53
How do you compete with that?00:12:54
By the year 1918 every other automobile on the road00:12:59
was Ford Model T.00:13:01
By that time Ford had stopped buying any advertisement of his automobile at all.00:13:06
There was no need.00:13:07
When your car takes up half of the market00:13:11
and all the competitors are merely a background,00:13:14
there's no point in advertisement.00:13:16
Everyone knows your car and wants to buy it already because00:13:19
half of the market is one hell of a statement.00:13:21
Obviously, Model T got it's popularity from it's price.00:13:25
When your production is so efficient00:13:29
that it only takes an hour and a half to turn a bunch of nuts and bolts into a car...00:13:34
Its market price won't be much different from its production cost.00:13:39
And necessary parts are dirt cheap when you buy them in bulk.00:13:45
And Ford got the bulk.00:13:47
And his bulk was so bulky that it put any other bulk to shame, if you know what I mean.00:13:52
In the year 1917 alone Ford produced 735,000 Model T's00:13:58
at the absurdly low price of 500 dollars.00:14:00
500 dollars in 191700:14:02
is roughly ten grands today.00:14:05
And 735,000 Model T's00:14:08
is more than all the electric and steam-powered cars00:14:12
produced in the same year by all the other manufacturers combined.00:14:18
So the internal combustion cars got their first advantage all thanks to Ford's pricing.00:14:23
Just so you understand, let's talk about Ford's competitors.00:14:27
Let's start off with steam-powered vehicles.00:14:30
What's the first thought everyone gets on the mention of steam-powered cars?00:14:33
Here's the furnace, here's some wood and coal.00:14:36
You just throw it in there and let it burn and it starts chugging.00:14:39
But to give you an example, here are the characteristics of one of such cars.00:14:44
Zero to 120 kilometers per hour in ten seconds.00:14:47
Cruising range of 2,000 kilometers in one refill.00:14:50
For perspective, 2,000 kilometers in one refill00:14:54
is you filling up a tank with 90 liters of water00:14:57
and then driving to Sochi.00:14:58
And you'll still have enough steam to drive around Sochi.00:15:01
No refill stops needed.00:15:04
Those are the characteristics of Doble Model C.00:15:07
This wonder was designed by the Doble brothers -00:15:10
Abner, John, William, and Warren.00:15:13
The secret of such impressive cruise range00:15:15
was in the design of the steam boiler.00:15:17
In 170-meters-long tube, to be exact.00:15:21
It was twisted in such way that it could fit in a tank about this size.00:15:26
The length of a 56-storey building.00:15:29
And a tube of this length was put inside of such container.00:15:32
This is what it looked like.00:15:35
Such length in a small cross-section00:15:37
resulted in an impressive steam pressure.00:15:39
The amount of water needed was laughable.00:15:41
When the brothers presented their design at the 1917 New York Motor Show,00:15:46
the public was in awe.00:15:48
It was the only steam-powered vehicle at the show00:15:52
and certainly one of the most impressive pieces.00:15:55
Visitors were simply charmed by this model.00:15:58
It's fast, it's quiet and it's easy to use.00:16:01
With reverse travel pedal.00:16:03
Though there were no takesies backsies on this one.00:16:05
If you catch my drift.00:16:07
It even had the engine start button.00:16:11
In the year 1917.00:16:12
On a steam car.00:16:15
Buttons had just been invented and they already got one.00:16:17
In three months00:16:19
the Doble brothers received 5,390 pre-orders for Model C.00:16:23
The guys cheered.00:16:25
While Ford, may I remind you, was already making 700,000 cars a year.00:16:31
Plus, Doble steam cars costed thousands of dollars.00:16:35
The next model, Doble Model E,00:16:38
costed 12,000 dollars,00:16:40
which is roughly 200,000 dollars today.00:16:45
Comparing to the Ford's pricing,00:16:47
for the price of one Doble Model E you could buy00:16:52
24 Ford Model T's.00:16:54
Yes, Doble wasn't the only company producing steam-powered cars.00:16:59
There were cheaper cars.00:17:01
One of the mass-produced vehicles was Stanley,00:17:04
which looked like this.00:17:05
But its production volumes came nowhere near Ford.00:17:09
There were also hundreds of low-production car manufacturers.00:17:13
When you share the market with a product that is almost as convenient,00:17:18
but costs much, much cheaper,00:17:20
competition is virtually impossible.00:17:23
Essentially, Ford single-handedly destroyed steam-powered automobiles00:17:27
by offering a cheaper model to the consumers.00:17:30
The fact that steam-powered cars were inconvenient00:17:33
was not the reason they failed.00:17:35
The main reason was that they were way more expensive00:17:39
than Ford Model T.00:17:44
Divine Integration00:18:02
I'm okay with my car's power.00:18:06
I can make it roar if I need to.00:18:08
But racing on the public roads is not safe.00:18:13
People can get hurt. And the dose of adrenaline can be found on the racetrack or in the games.00:18:19
The modern steering wheel controller is not just some toy.00:18:23
Best units can cost thousands of dollars.00:18:27
It can help you find some new experiences or new ways to enjoy the games you already know.00:18:32
It's not just some joystick to play around with.00:18:36
The Logitech G923 TrueForce steering wheel00:18:39
is a state of art gaming simulator.00:18:41
Both fit for new and seasoned gamers.00:18:45
It's made of aluminum, steel and leather.00:18:48
It's has a nice grip to it00:18:50
and doesn't slip from your hands.00:18:53
On the wheel there is a lot of control buttons00:18:55
and the steering indicator.00:18:57
Anything can be set to those buttons - the speeding, the brakes and so on.00:19:02
The pedals that go with it00:19:04
are also close to the real ones.00:19:05
They even react to the pressure level.00:19:08
True Force technology allows you to enhance the virtual driving experience even further.00:19:13
The steering resistance is transmitted to the wheel00:19:15
you can feel the drifts or driving on gravel00:19:18
even the impact.00:19:19
And all these functions are supported by numerous games.00:19:23
Grit, Grand Turismo Racing and many others.00:19:26
It also has the system of programmable dual clutch.00:19:30
Which imitates driving a race car.00:19:33
So now you could go even faster.00:19:35
If you know a thing or two about the simulators,00:19:38
you can also get the gearbox for better experience.00:19:41
Logitech G-Driving Force Shifter.00:19:44
It has six gears and reverse.00:19:47
There are two options of purchase.00:19:49
The one I have supports Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.00:19:52
The other is for Xbox.00:19:54
Both are compatible with PC.00:19:56
If you want to learn more about Logitech G-923 True Force, click a link in the description.00:20:02
This is the perfect value for money gadget that will bring you new experiences.00:20:07
And most importantly, it is safe.00:20:12
Rolling R Stories00:20:15
At the time, gasoline powered cars weren't exactly a definition of comfort.00:20:20
Everything's oily, greasy and noisy as hell.00:20:23
There were no mufflers yet, by the way.00:20:25
It also stinks.00:20:27
Here's what the first gasoline cars sounded like.00:20:32
Electric cars, in comparison, looked like a refuge00:20:35
for respectable gentlemen.00:20:38
They made almost no sound,00:20:39
not much noisier that the modern ones.00:20:41
Easy to use with a comfortable interior00:20:44
they looked more like an elegant carriage00:20:47
than a car.00:20:49
Just so you know, they would often put vases with flowers inside electric cars as a piece of decor.00:20:57
Check it out, this option pack was called00:21:00
"All around me are environment killers00:21:02
and I'm the righteous one smelling roses."00:21:05
All jokes aside,00:21:06
electric cars were way easier to use back then.00:21:10
Not to mention the prestige.00:21:11
That's why bankers, lawyers, doctors and their wives chose electric vehicles.00:21:16
Even Henry Ford's wife drove an electric car made by Detroit Electric.00:21:20
The most successful electric car company in the US, thank you very much.00:21:25
Yes, you heard me. Henry Ford's wife was a proud owner of an electric car.00:21:30
Henry himself didn't mind the fact that his wife drives a different type of car00:21:35
made by another company.00:21:36
He just knew that he makes the cheapest product for the masses.00:21:40
While his wife is not cheap and not the masses.00:21:43
This electric wonder was designed in 190700:21:47
and its mass production lasted up until 1939.00:21:52
Detroit Electric is considered a forefather of all electric cars.00:21:55
At the time it was the first and only electric car company00:21:59
which sold its product by thousands.00:22:03
Obviously, such comfort was not a cheap one.00:22:06
On average, electric cars costed 2,500 dollars.00:22:09
Yeah, that's not as much as 12,000 for a Model E,00:22:12
but money doesn't grow on trees.00:22:15
Even in the year 1910 with this money you could buy00:22:20
eight Ford Model T automobiles.00:22:23
Even though it's like buying eight blow-up dolls instead of a real woman.00:22:27
Why would you need a real woman when you got a toy, though.00:22:30
One more argument in favor of electric car superiority00:22:34
is their convenience.00:22:35
There were only two levers inside.00:22:38
One for steering and one to sit one.00:22:41
Just kidding, you sit on both.00:22:43
The second lever which looked like handbrake00:22:45
was responsible for gear-shifting and reverse.00:22:48
Easy to hit from behind.00:22:50
An important feature for all the activists, by the way.00:22:54
The only thing to pick on00:22:56
was its speed.00:22:57
Speed limit was only thirty two kilometers per hour.00:23:01
You didn't need more driving within city limits where everybody drove at that speed.00:23:06
Not that bank owner's wives had anywhere to be.00:23:09
The important thing was that you just get in, press the button, pull the lever and drive.00:23:14
No voodoo and no extra effort.00:23:16
Though sometimes I wouldn't mind some extra action.00:23:19
But electric car owners don't know anything about libido, so they wouldn't get it.00:23:22
Now you can all be like "Hey, wait a second!"00:23:26
"What are you doing telling us that electric cars were more convenient?"00:23:29
"How do you charge it, where do you plug it?"00:23:32
First of all, where you put a plug is not my business.00:23:35
Second of all, yes, charging them was problematic.00:23:38
It hasn't changed a bit in 120 years.00:23:40
But the situation with gas stations was exactly the same.00:23:43
At the time, gasoline was sold in pharmacies, just so you know.00:23:47
And it was mostly used as a bleach, not fuel.00:23:51
And not all pharmacies sold it.00:23:53
If you're surprised that gasoline used to be sold at pharmacies,00:23:56
keep in mind that kerosene used to be sold at grocery stores.00:24:01
No joke. Spaghetti, meat, vegetables, kerosene, fruit, bread.00:24:06
No one bat an eye.00:24:07
So if you had an ICE automobile you'd have just as much trouble00:24:11
as electric car owners.00:24:13
And if you keep in mind that the engine and the transmission needs00:24:17
maintenance and greasing up from time to time,00:24:20
that's even worse.00:24:21
Electric car's design was a winner in that sense.00:24:25
The only things inside it were the electric engine, the battery, the wheels00:24:29
and the desperation in driver's eyes.00:24:30
Enjoy your ride.00:24:32
And considering that electric cars were targeted at people with deep pockets00:24:37
it's not that hard to put all the pieces together00:24:41
and come up with some cool feature for your clients.00:24:43
And Detroit Electric did just that.00:24:45
Modern PR agents, take a note.00:24:48
Detroit Electric built their own exclusive two-storey charging station for their clients.00:24:54
It could simultaneously charge up to 100 cars.00:24:57
But the company didn't just provide a parking lot with chargers but a whole service around it.00:25:04
For a price of 35 dollars a month00:25:06
your car was taken for daily maintenance00:25:09
where they would wash, polish, repair and charge the battery.00:25:13
And in the morning the car would be driven where the owner wanted it and when they wanted it.00:25:18
S class service.00:25:21
You come home after hard day's work and one of the highly-trained mechanics is already waiting there for you.00:25:27
The company takes your car00:25:28
and in the morning it's already at your door squeaky clean and charged.00:25:33
35 dollars then is 1,000 dollars today, though.00:25:36
But such service was worth it even by today's standards.00:25:39
30 charges, 30 washes and 30 deliveries to the car service and back00:25:45
is a good deal even for 1,000 dollars.00:25:49
If you have cash to spare.00:25:51
Keeping in mind that the car itself costed 2,500 dollars.00:25:55
By comparison, 35 bucks is nothing.00:25:58
Detroit Electric sales peaked in 1914,00:26:02
when they sold 4,500 cars.00:26:05
Yes, it still pales in comparison to Ford's sales,00:26:09
but combined with overnight charging service,00:26:11
electric cars were quite convenient at the time.00:26:15
And the price tag wasn't much of the problem.00:26:18
First of all, leading in production volumes00:26:23
is not a ticket to a better life.00:26:25
Mercedes is feeling quite fine despite its relatively low production volumes.00:26:29
Second of all, if an electric car manufacturer would have organized their production on Ford's principles,00:26:36
it would have broken the price gap00:26:38
and Ford Model T's only advantage, its cost, wouldn't have really mattered.00:26:43
And, technically, you can't push the competitors out of the market just by pricing00:26:48
if you're one step behind in user-friendliness.00:26:50
May I remind you, you could start an electric car by just pressing a button.00:26:55
While ICE cars heavily relied on driver's physical abilities.00:27:00
Due to the nature of their design the driver often had to use blunt physical force.00:27:07
That's why it was virtually impossible for women and elderly people to use these cars.00:27:13
Basically, what we have here is a sexist and ageist car.00:27:17
How about that, feminists?00:27:19
To hell with the service and the controls.00:27:23
Even starting the vehicle was an adventure on its own.00:27:27
The older part of the audience knows what hand crank starter is.00:27:31
Or, in garage terms: "Oi, where's the bloody crank."00:27:35
And for everyone else, let me explain what the hell is that.00:27:38
Basically, it was a curved metal rod that was put in the engine's crankshaft.00:27:44
Cranckshaft is the main spinning thingy00:27:47
which starts the engine and the gearbox and makes the car go.00:27:51
So, the hand crank was put in the crankshaft to manually wind up the engine.00:27:57
Just to start it.00:27:58
This process ignited the compression in the engine00:28:03
and if you spin it fast enough00:28:05
at some point the engine starts working by itself.00:28:08
For example, you've seen people start their lawnmowers or motor boats.00:28:14
By pulling the rope.00:28:16
Basically, the same crap.00:28:18
That's what we call a rope starter.00:28:19
It makes the cranckshaft spin in the same manner.00:28:23
And if you're good enough at winding up the engine,00:28:27
it starts roaring.00:28:29
It creates two problems.00:28:30
First of all, to start the engine this way00:28:33
you have to spin it swiftly and put some pressure.00:28:36
It's not that simple.00:28:38
An average modern driver00:28:40
is unlikely to handle an exercise like this.00:28:44
Rope starter is way easier since00:28:46
lawnmowers and boats have an engine about this size.00:28:49
You go try and wind up a huge car engine.00:28:53
Let alone fast enough for it to work.00:28:55
And if you try it in winter when the engine is cold, God bless you.00:28:59
Second of all, when the engine started00:29:02
the crank would go spinning with the cranckshaft00:29:04
since it was put inside it.00:29:06
And this bastard could easily get stuck.00:29:08
If you are not prepared to handle the crank,00:29:11
you could easily break your fingers, dislocate the shoulder00:29:14
or get hit on your meat rod by this steel rod.00:29:18
Simply put, not only is the crank inconvenient,00:29:21
it's also dangerous.00:29:23
And this mechanism was quite an argument in favor of electric cars.00:29:28
Which even then started by a single press of a button.00:29:31
Press and go.00:29:33
While Ford Model T needed a crank.00:29:36
Spin, freak out, spin again.00:29:39
And then maybe go.00:29:40
By taxi.00:29:42
But there was one thing that changed the whole situation.00:29:46
In the year 1910,00:29:48
a man called Byron Carter wasn't careful enough while starting the engine00:29:52
which led to him getting hit in the head by the crank several times.00:29:56
Resulting in death.00:29:57
I have no punchline for that, the crank handled it just fine.00:30:01
All in all, why make a big deal out of this death?00:30:04
A random death like that raised much less concern back then than it does today.00:30:09
Especially when it happened around machinery or production sites.00:30:12
But this metal head Byron00:30:15
wasn't just a no-name from the streets, but a close friend of Henry Leland.00:30:19
And Henry Leland is only the founder00:30:22
and the owner of Cadillac Lincoln.00:30:24
And the most important thing that Byron got hit on the head by a Caddie.00:30:28
Leland was obviously very upset.00:30:31
His friend's death could have been avoided and he felt guilty about it.00:30:35
Important to note that Leland was a natural born engineer.00:30:38
The first Cadillac automobile, type A was designed solely by Leland himself.00:30:43
And obviously, when your brainchild00:30:46
kills your close friend00:30:48
you won't be too happy about it.00:30:50
Especially if the friend owes you.00:30:51
Good news is Leland didn't consort00:30:55
to common practices00:30:57
like posting "thoughts and prayers" on Facebook00:31:00
or recording a sad black and white insta story.00:31:03
Instead he took action00:31:04
to prevent such thing from ever happening again.00:31:07
Not to mention that he didn't have much expendable friends to begin with.00:31:11
Cadillac engineering division started their work00:31:14
but they couldn't come up with anything of value.00:31:16
Well, they did create a mechanism00:31:18
that could start an engine by itself00:31:22
but it was just too big to fit in the car.00:31:25
Leland knew that he wouldn't be able to solve this problem on his own00:31:30
and outside help was needed.00:31:32
So, after a while he stumbled upon Delco company,00:31:35
which was run by this gentleman.00:31:37
Charles Cattering.00:31:39
This man is very important for our story.00:31:42
We'll come back to him later.00:31:44
At this point we need to know just one thing:00:31:47
Charles's company, Delco, developed different solutions for the car industry.00:31:52
Basically, it was a bunch of engineers in a garage who invented stuff.00:31:56
And suddenly Leland appears on the horizon.00:31:59
Saying something in the lines of:00:32:01
Hey, mister.00:32:02
I want my car to turn on from just a touch.00:32:08
Your wish is my command.00:32:10
I'll make a note: it should work00:32:13
just like your mother.00:32:15
How is she, by the way?00:32:18
We have one mother.00:32:21
Needless to say, they weren't the first ones to try designing an automatic starter.00:32:26
But nothing of value was present on the market.00:32:28
Nothing worked.00:32:30
Cattering bought one of those unviable patents00:32:34
and started improving it with his boys.00:32:36
And they succeeded.00:32:37
After a year of development in 1911,00:32:41
Cattering registered his patent US one point one five zero00:32:45
point five two three,00:32:47
which described the design of an electric started for a car engine00:32:50
The funniest thing is that this starter hadn't seen any particular change even to this day.00:32:56
Basically, it's a tiny electric motor00:32:58
powered by a battery00:32:59
of your car.00:33:01
When you turn the key or press a button, the circuit closes00:33:05
and the mechanism starts spinning00:33:07
winding up the engine to its starting point.00:33:09
Basically, a person winding up the engine with a crank00:33:13
was replaced by a tiny motor.00:33:15
And this seemingly small invention00:33:19
didn't kill people anymore.00:33:20
Instead it killed the main advantage electric cars had over ICEs -00:33:25
manual start with a hand crank.00:33:27
As soon as Leland was informed about the solution00:33:31
He promptly placed an order on 5,000 electric starters.00:33:34
At first, starter technology was exclusive to Cadillac,00:33:37
which greatly increased their car sales.00:33:40
An ICE car00:33:41
which is just as easy to use as an electric one,00:33:45
minus the need of overnight charging?00:33:48
Everyone wanted it.00:33:50
All the other manufacturers00:33:52
were quick to understand that they need that shit too.00:33:55
Some tried ordering starters from Delco,00:33:57
some tried to come up with an alternative,00:34:00
but GM did the smartest thing.00:34:02
In my documentary on Detroit I mentioned00:34:04
that William Durant, founder of General Motors,00:34:07
expanded his market share by buying literally everything that the car industry could offer in the 1910s.00:34:13
Warehouses, part manufactures,00:34:16
basically, anything that wasn't glued to the floor.00:34:19
He bought it all.00:34:20
So he bought Delco with all of their developments.00:34:23
It all happened five years after00:34:25
the invention of starter, in 1916.00:34:28
And from this point00:34:30
any car that GM produced00:34:32
had an electric starter pre-installed.00:34:35
In 1919,00:34:36
even Ford started putting it inside Model T's.00:34:40
But since Ford tried keeping it as cheap as possible,00:34:43
the starter was just an option for additional 30 dollars.00:34:47
And somewhere in that period from 1919 to 1920,00:34:52
every single internal combustion car00:34:55
had an electric starter pre-installed00:34:57
or an option to install one.00:35:00
Some manufacturers bought their parts from Delco,00:35:03
some made their own, but that is not important.00:35:05
What's important is that the hand crank, as a phenomenon, faded away.00:35:11
And when internal combustion engine became just as convenient as an electric one when it came to starting it,00:35:17
electric car manufacturers had no more cards up their sleeves.00:35:21
It was their time to fold.00:35:22
Their cruise range was the same if not lesser, it had to be charged overnight and costed more.00:35:27
Even noise wasn't much of a problem by then00:35:30
because in 1920 all cars had mufflers installed.00:35:34
As for exhaust fumes, people couldn't care less about them back then.00:35:38
So, electric cars had no advantage00:35:41
over ICE cars.00:35:44
And they deserved waving the market goodbye.00:35:48
The supply and demand formula is a fair one.00:35:51
If people don't need it,00:35:53
it shouldn't exist.00:35:55
And that is exactly what happened to electric cars at the dawn of the 20th century.00:35:59
The world needed a vehicle with an internal combustion engine.00:36:04
And it deserved winning that war.00:36:15
So it turned out that by the beginning of the 1920s, internal combustion engine vehicles were cheaper than other cars00:36:23
and just as convenient to use as the electric ones.00:36:27
It was virtually impossible to compete with the ICE.00:36:30
Manufacturers of this type of cars had unparalleled prices, production volumes and user-friendliness.00:36:36
But the car is not just a product on wheels.00:36:40
It's a whole industry, a whole world built around it.00:36:44
Just look around in any town00:36:47
and you'll see how the modern world revolves around cars.00:36:50
And when the industry got its volume,00:36:53
when there are just so many cars,00:36:56
they could no longer exist in a vacuum.00:37:00
Electric starters and conveyor belts are good and all,00:37:04
but it's not enough for world domination.00:37:06
That's why studying the history of the car industry separately00:37:10
from the events that occurred in the world00:37:13
and individual countries is wrong.00:37:15
What I'm trying to say is00:37:17
ICE prevailed not only because of the improvements in its design or assembly method.00:37:23
ICE became an unquestionable leader00:37:28
due to the US alcohol prohibition in 1919.00:37:43
Divine Integration00:37:50
Keeping your workplace clean is important.00:37:53
Just so that nothing gets in your way,00:37:57
everything is on its place and takes up as much space as supposed to.00:38:01
Because sometimes you might miss the fact that something takes up the space00:38:05
which can be used with higher efficiency.00:38:08
Personal computers work the same way.00:38:10
They can be filled with junk00:38:12
that you should have been deleted but never got to it.00:38:15
It is now much simpler to do that.00:38:18
Because we have Avast Cleanup Premium.00:38:20
The optimization and cleaning software from the developers of a famous antivirus.00:38:24
There are two benefits of using Cleanup Premium.00:38:27
It makes your PC run faster00:38:29
and deletes junk.00:38:31
The optimization functions allow you to find and delete useless software00:38:36
and optimizing the auto-startup00:38:38
by stopping the long forgotten software from running every time you turn on you PC.00:38:42
And also run heavy apps in a special mode that makes them take up less RAM.00:38:48
You can also delete unnecessary extensions, cookies and cache of your browser.00:38:54
And obviously, you can scan your hard drive to delete anything you don't need.00:38:58
Like the digital junk that is generated by the softwares00:39:03
and takes up useful gigabytes.00:39:05
All that in a press of a button.00:39:07
Also, no file will be deleted without your approval.00:39:11
Don't worry about it.00:39:12
If needed, Avast can clean your system automatically.00:39:17
It will solve any problems like hard drive and registry errors,00:39:21
updating your software and so on.00:39:23
Aside for Windows, this software can also be installed on Mac and Android.00:39:27
It has all the same functions00:39:29
plus the ones designed for your operating system of choice.00:39:32
There is a link to the free trial of Avast Cleanup Premium waiting for you in the description.00:39:36
Click it, install it and keep your device clean.00:39:42
Chapter 2. Whales, Kerosene and the Prohibition Act00:39:50
So far I've only mentioned gasoline three times.00:39:55
The first time in the intro when I said I would go and fill my car and two more times when I said that it used to be sold in pharmacies.00:40:01
You know why I did that?00:40:04
Because ICE didn't use gasoline.00:40:07
Yup. Ford Model T00:40:09
just like the first Ford engines00:40:12
were originally designed for ethanol.00:40:16
And suffix "ol" in the end00:40:18
as well as the excessive salivation of all my alcoholic viewers,00:40:21
tells us that it's a kind of spirit.00:40:24
And most of the ICE cars back then00:40:27
used to be fueled by spirit.00:40:30
Basically, just like most of the Saint Petersburg students, cars used to run solely on alcohol.00:40:35
The thing is, ethanol is a spirit made from grains.00:40:39
And any farmer had lots and lots of this stuff.00:40:43
They would make ethanol at home for a low price00:40:46
and then fill their cheap car with it.00:40:49
And that was Ford's plan.00:40:52
It would have been weird of him to design a cheap car for the masses00:40:56
and make it run on a fuel that costs a lot.00:41:00
And the other cars with a smaller market share00:41:03
mostly ran on kerosene.00:41:06
Which was also quite cheap at the time.00:41:09
gasoline, as I already mentioned,00:41:10
was only used as a bleach.00:41:13
For the most part. And you wouldn't want to use Tide pods as a fuel.00:41:18
So people back then thought the same way about gasoline.00:41:20
To fully understand the logic00:41:22
I need to put you in context of the oil industry of that period.00:41:27
Young environmentalists are not going to be happy about this.00:41:30
Because I will say that oil usage back then00:41:34
used to save animals.00:41:37
Let's appreciate the sound of them boiling up before I go on.00:41:43
Good stuff.00:41:44
We all know what fish oil is.00:41:47
Well, millennial athletes and instagram models will go00:41:52
it's Omega-Three but normal people call it fish oil.00:41:55
The difference is you can buy fish oil at a pharmacy for fifty rubles00:41:58
while Omega-Three is something they sell on instagram for a grand.00:42:02
And back then people didn't eat it.00:42:04
They weren't as fucked up as we are.00:42:06
Instead it was used as lamp oil00:42:09
for street lights, torches and all that.00:42:12
And to earn the privilege to have a romantic dinner by the oil lamp00:42:16
people used to slaughter the whales by thousands.00:42:19
People would cut their fat called blubber00:42:22
and used it for their romantic intricacies.00:42:24
What can be more romantic than the smell of a burning whale.00:42:28
Somewhere in the middle of the 19th century00:42:30
humanity as a whole came up with kerosene.00:42:34
I only say that because almost simultaneously different people in different parts of the world decided to start boiling oil.00:42:40
It's not clear who's been the first one and it's not important.00:42:44
Yes, kerosene production is actually that simple.00:42:47
A tank of crude oil is heated until it starts vaporizing00:42:50
which are then condensed and poured in another tank.00:42:53
And this vapor is called kerosene.00:42:55
Or gasoline.00:42:56
Gasoline has a low boiling temperature while kerosene has a high one. Here.00:43:01
The difference between gasoline and kerosene is that00:43:04
that gasoline is highly flammable and liquid00:43:08
while kerosene has an oily structure and burns slower.00:43:11
And at the time when there were no cars00:43:14
gasoline had virtually no use.00:43:16
You can't fill the lamp with it as it will blow the whole place up00:43:20
so gasoline is just completely useless.00:43:22
While kerosene was a good substitute for whale fat00:43:26
as it wasn't combustible.00:43:28
But how do you stop00:43:30
people from using the whale fat00:43:33
and start using kerosene.00:43:35
That's right! We need more people on the streets00:43:38
holding "Stop killing whales" posters.00:43:41
Today they get oil from the whales.00:43:43
Tomorrow they will get oil from our women.00:43:46
And when people see those posters,00:43:49
they will obviously stop killing whales.00:43:52
Because our world is as easy as that.00:43:55
Luckily, the world00:43:56
has a bit more logic than activist's brain.00:43:58
That's why to make whale fat irrelevant00:44:01
you need to find a way to make kerosene cheaper00:44:04
and more accessible.00:44:06
So that one can buy it on every corner00:44:08
and don't become broke.00:44:10
And then the problem would solve itself.00:44:14
That is magic.00:44:16
Which is called Life and Logic.00:44:19
For that reason the first oil well was dug up in Pennsylvania in eighteen fifty nine.00:44:25
And small oil refineries started clustering around it.00:44:29
They were the main manufacturers of kerosene.00:44:31
And then they dug up another hole. And another one.00:44:34
And then they built one more refinery and so on.00:44:38
First batches of oil00:44:39
from this wells costed 16 dollars per barrel.00:44:43
In today's money it was 440 bucks.00:44:46
In the year 1860 the price dropped to $ 9,5 per barrel00:44:50
and a year after it dropped to 49 cents.00:44:53
Per barrel.00:44:55
It's around 13 dollars in today's money.00:44:59
One barrel equals 158 eight liters. In a nutshell, oil was dirt cheap.00:45:03
Though the whole kerosene situation was peculiar00:45:06
since it costed a lot00:45:08
even though it was made from cheap crude oil.00:45:11
So a liter of kerosene was way more expensive than a liter of oil.00:45:15
And a 20-year-old kid went: "Hmm."00:45:18
Interesting.00:45:20
I smell money.00:45:22
I present to you, Johnny.00:45:24
By that time Johnny had cash to spare00:45:27
which he earned by selling meat grain and all that.00:45:31
But the most important thing he had00:45:33
is a feeling that kerosene and oil had good prospects.00:45:38
He also had a drive to establish the oil industry.00:45:41
Johnny had a partner in his meat and grain business.00:45:46
His name was Maurice.00:45:47
Together they found Samuel Andrews, the chemist00:45:50
who knew how to make kerosene from oil, so they all decided to establish their own company.00:45:56
They called it Andrews, Clark and Company.00:45:59
Where Andrews was the chemist,00:46:01
Clark is a business partner00:46:03
and company is Johnny, I guess.00:46:05
Basically, everything these guys did from that point was optimizing and improving00:46:09
all the processes the industry implied.00:46:13
And it had a lot to optimize.00:46:15
First of all, all the kerosene on the market was, well, shit.00:46:20
Refining methods were no good at all.00:46:23
the end product wasn't clean and didn't burn that well.00:46:27
The quality varied from barrel to barrel.00:46:30
To put it simply00:46:33
so anyone could understand, here's what the guys did.00:46:36
As I already mentioned, kerosene was distilled from oil00:46:39
by heating up the tank until the vapor rises.00:46:42
That vapor is collected and voila, kerosene.00:46:45
But this method implies that the product isn't pure.00:46:49
Because this vapor is mixed with oil particles00:46:52
and the product ends up with tar in it.00:46:55
Tar is an umbrella term for all the waste in the distillation process.00:47:00
It's mostly used for making roofing flux.00:47:04
Our generation also knows what it tastes like.00:47:06
And when kerosene has a lot of tar in it00:47:09
you get a mixture that doesn't burn well00:47:12
and produces fetid smoke.00:47:13
But if you mix00:47:15
this impure kerosene with sulfuric acid,00:47:18
give it a good stir00:47:20
and then leave it alone for a while,00:47:22
tar and all its components00:47:24
will separate from kerosene and stay at the bottom of the tank.00:47:28
Then just open a vent on the bottom, drain the tar and all the crap00:47:31
close it and here we go - pure kerosene.00:47:33
It burns well and is perfect for the lamps.00:47:37
Everybody wants to buy it.00:47:39
And these guys were the first ones00:47:41
to implement this purification technique on their refinery.00:47:45
Second of all, back then almost 40% of oil00:47:49
got dumped after distillation.00:47:51
Like some waste.00:47:53
You can't get kerosene from that oil and there's no other use for it.00:47:56
So the leftovers were literally dumped on the corner.00:48:00
I'm starting to get worried about activists.00:48:03
To make these leftovers somewhat useful our guys figured out how to produce gasoline and paraffin wax.00:48:09
General public didn't want gasoline but the guys found use for it at their power plants.00:48:15
That way they reduced the use of coil00:48:17
which saved them some money.00:48:19
While paraffin wax sold quite well00:48:22
since everybody needed candles back then.00:48:24
Basically, the guys got more products00:48:26
from each barrel of crude oil00:48:28
and therefore more profit.00:48:31
Third of all it's important to note00:48:32
that oil is extracted at the well,00:48:35
then it gets transported to the oil refinery,00:48:38
where stuff is made from it,00:48:40
and only then the final product is transported from this refinery00:48:43
to the warehouses.00:48:44
And then to the customer.00:48:45
And all this transportation was the reason for high kerosene prices.00:48:51
Oil, kerosene and any other liquid stuff00:48:54
was transported in these wooden barrels.00:48:57
Which just couldn't hold all of the liquid product.00:49:00
Because these barrels were made of wood00:49:03
and made poorly.00:49:04
And the freight rates were ridiculous too since railroads00:49:08
had just started to appear.00:49:10
And were not a common practice,00:49:12
while building them was expensive.00:49:14
So you got to deal with that somehow, hence the high prices.00:49:17
The guys solved the barrel problem quite easily.00:49:19
They just bought some woodland and cut it down,00:49:22
starting their own barrel production.00:49:24
Just for themselves.00:49:25
That way they killed two birds with one stone.00:49:27
One - they reduced the product loss00:49:31
since their barrels had no gaps and cracks the ones bought on the side had.00:49:35
And two - they reduced the price of one barrel from 2,5 dollars to one dollar.00:49:40
As soon as they got enough volume,00:49:41
Johnny managed to arrange a substantial discount on freight rate00:49:46
as a wholesale distributor.00:49:47
And these three seemingly simple improvements00:49:51
helped the guys to get a colossal advantage00:49:53
over all the other companies on the market.00:49:56
As a result, their products were much cheaper to produce,00:50:00
much cheaper for the customers00:50:03
and was superior.00:50:04
Thereby kerosene became much cheaper for the general masses00:50:09
than its whale fat alternatives.00:50:12
In fact, it blew whale oil out of the water.00:50:15
One gallon of whale fat, which is around 3,4 liters,00:50:21
costed 1,77 dollars.00:50:24
While a gallon of kerosene costed just 7 cents.00:50:27
For the price of a gallon of whale fat you could buy twenty five gallons of kerosene.00:50:33
Obviously, everybody got off whale's backs and started using kerosene.00:50:37
No posters, no sore activist throats.00:50:40
Though whale fat vendors' throats were sore alright.00:50:45
Cause even whales don't blow as hard as they did.00:50:47
All this led to the company's rapid development.00:50:50
And in three years time after the launch00:50:53
their annual turnover hit two million dollars.00:50:56
Which is a lot by their time standards.00:50:59
Johnny knew that it's only the beginning00:51:02
and there is an opportunity to take over the whole market00:51:06
by crowing out all the other companies.00:51:08
He contacted some of his relatives and business colleagues00:51:12
to establish a brand new company together.00:51:15
which was basically destined to rule the world.00:51:18
The company was called Standard Oil.00:51:20
By the way, Johnny's last name was Rockefeller.00:51:24
When the company was established in eighteen seventy,00:51:26
Standard Oil controlled 4% of the US oil market.00:51:30
Though even then it was the biggest company00:51:32
since back then there were only 250 other companies in the US.00:51:36
Like dominating the market due to their lowered freight rates wasn't enough00:51:40
they also started buying up all the wooden barrels available on the money they saved,00:51:45
so that they could jack up the prices for the competitors,00:51:48
ultimately crowing them out.00:51:50
And all this00:51:51
led to Standard Oil controlling 25% of the market by 187400:51:57
and 85% by the 1880s.00:52:01
Monopoly in its purest form.00:52:04
By 1885, Standard Oil became the largest company in the world.00:52:08
They had the power,00:52:09
the money, hundreds of thousands workplaces00:52:12
and 20,000 oil wells.00:52:14
And when you control the core of your country's economy00:52:19
you have a huge leverage on the government.00:52:22
Here's a cartoon drawn around that time00:52:25
depicting Standard Oil as a squid controlling the whole nation.00:52:29
They sponsored presidential campaigns,00:52:31
pledged money to charity00:52:34
and ultimately had every important person in their pockets.00:52:38
It all lasted until the point this fine gentleman became a president.00:52:43
Theodore Roosevelt.00:52:44
Roosevelt knew that monopoly is no good.00:52:47
Monopolists would always jack up the prices00:52:50
to make huge profits00:52:51
and strangle the smaller companies with their resources.00:52:54
While product quality would not improve because why?00:52:58
We own the market.00:53:00
Not to mention that Roosevelt didn't enjoy the idea of such powers influencing the politics.00:53:04
That's when he decided to tear Standard Oil down.00:53:07
The whole invisible war that occurred behind the scenes in the process is a story for another day.00:53:13
We'll discuss it later, we got enough to talk about.00:53:16
Here's what we need to know now.00:53:19
In 1911 Standard Oil splits into 34 smaller companies.00:53:24
The modern companies00:53:25
which used to be Standard Oil are Esso00:53:27
Exon Mobil, BP and the likes.00:53:30
After the breakup, all the former Standard Oil companies comprised 65% of the market.00:53:35
But the important thing is that they still had to compete each other.00:53:39
Cause now those companies had their own budgets,00:53:42
incomes and expenses, their own CEOs and such.00:53:45
Still, it's important to note that Rockefeller00:53:47
had a share in all of these subsidiary companies.00:53:51
Even though they competed each other,00:53:54
fought for the market and all that,00:53:56
the beneficiary remained the same.00:53:59
Johnny.00:54:01
And he still had the power and the capital.00:54:05
He just had to be a little more subtle in his actions.00:54:09
Even though the whole break-up deal was unpleasant on itself, it wasn't the main problem of the oil industry.00:54:17
The real problem was a small object that could easily fit in one's fist.00:54:24
Here. That is the biggest enemy of the oil industry of those times.00:54:28
In the year 1879 Edison invents a lightbulb.00:54:32
His profits weren't such a big deal,00:54:34
but in ten to twenty years lightbulb00:54:36
would completely destroy the kerosene lamp industry.00:54:40
And Rockefeller knew that.00:54:41
And then, when no one expected00:54:44
first cars appear.00:54:46
And some time later Ford appears as well, introducing his Model T that takes over the market.00:54:52
When automobiles start filling the streets, Rockefeller understands00:54:55
that this is his new market.00:54:58
The solution is within his reach.00:55:01
Just like he did with kerosene thirty years ago,00:55:03
when he just had to establish an infrastructure to ship the product to the people00:55:08
to skyrocket the business,00:55:11
once again he had to figure out the way to supply the fuel in such amounts00:55:16
that it would be sold anywhere00:55:17
and had a reasonable price.00:55:19
And making things cheap and accessible00:55:21
was the whole Rockefeller's thing.00:55:23
The first gasoline selling station00:55:26
had been built in 1907, even before Standard Oil broke up.00:55:29
Then they built another one, and another one.00:55:31
But, before the break up, the expansion of gas station chain was too slow.00:55:35
Just because the monopoly had no incentive to develop.00:55:39
They were okay with just having the money and the power.00:55:42
But, after the breakup of Standard Oil, its subsidiaries00:55:46
quickly understand that gas station networks00:55:49
is a perfect way to gain even more profit00:55:53
out of a quickly developing car industry.00:55:56
And here we go.00:55:58
In 1921, ten years after the Standard Oil breakup,00:56:01
there had been 12,000 gas stations in the US.00:56:05
In eight years after that00:56:06
the amount increased tenfold to 120,000 stations.00:56:12
Every company that was somehow connected with oil industry00:56:15
started building their own gas stations.00:56:17
That ignited the war for the most profitable spots near the huge transport arteries.00:56:22
And this massive and highly profitable network00:56:26
made the oil industry even stronger.00:56:29
While the oil industry was developing,00:56:33
The society was plagued by its own problem.00:56:36
The Americans drank too much.00:56:38
The scale of the problem was really serious.00:56:41
At the time, alcohol was extremely cheap00:56:44
since the states had vast agricultural areas.00:56:48
Everybody was drinking.00:56:50
For the US, the 1910s and 1920s were the age of bars, cabaret and hedonism.00:56:57
Good times.00:56:59
If I had a time machine I would gladly go bar hopping there.00:57:02
Though not everyone was happy about citizens getting drunk non-stop.00:57:06
The so-called Anti-Saloon League was formed as early as 19th century.00:57:12
Saloon is a kind of bar from western movies with doors that were constantly swinging.00:57:18
Just like your ex.00:57:19
Anti-alcohol movements took over the nation00:57:22
with representatives in every state.00:57:25
What's funny is that the most ardent supporters of Prohibition00:57:30
were pharmacists.00:57:32
Their argument was: "Guys, why do you drink, it's bad for you.00:57:37
unlike our tonics and herbal extracts.00:57:40
They contain no alcohol,00:57:42
but they're also very invigorating."00:57:46
And you know what those tonics were made of?00:57:49
Cocaine.00:57:51
Say hello to John Stith Pinkerton.00:57:55
That's the guy who invented Coca-Cola.00:57:57
One of the most loyal members of Anti-Saloon League.00:58:01
May I remind you, Coca-Cola used to be made from coca leaves back then.00:58:05
And one bottle contained roughly half a line of cocaine.00:58:10
With a straight face John was like00:58:12
"Guys why would you want booze.00:58:14
It's harmful and boring.00:58:15
I chugged two bottles of coke three days ago and haven't slept since."00:58:18
In addition to pharmacists,00:58:20
the church had joined the fight against all evil.00:58:23
The US is quite a religious country, especially back then.00:58:27
And when the church started meddling with state politics00:58:32
you couldn't just ward them off with a prayer anymore.00:58:35
The church had a huge following at the time.00:58:38
And without fail, almost each and every citizen00:58:41
used to drag their feet to Sunday service.00:58:45
Where the preachers told them that alcohol comes from the devil00:58:48
and that everyone should live a sober life.00:58:51
And that if your lips ever touch alcohol, they'll touch something else in hell.00:58:55
Basically, by the 1910s, the League's influence expanded and it became a force to be reckoned with.00:59:01
Their activists were politicians00:59:04
from two of the major parties,00:59:05
church members,00:59:07
entrepreneurs,00:59:08
pharmacists and God knows who else.00:59:10
Up until the end the alcohol industry refused to believe that it could be prohibited.00:59:16
The humanity has been drinking for ages.00:59:18
And we all know that we won't stop no matter what prohibition laws they throw at us.00:59:23
That's why the booze industry's defense was sluggish.00:59:27
Not to mention that it was hard to argue with a man of church advocating for the sober way of life.00:59:33
Or to argue with activists who told the boogeyman stories00:59:37
about people losing their jobs and leaving their families due to alcohol.00:59:42
It was hard to find a positive image of an alcohol consumer.00:59:46
The industry couldn't just go and say:00:59:51
This is Valeriy.00:59:53
At some point he used to have a job.00:59:55
A family.00:59:57
And a bunch of things to worry about.00:59:59
But then Valeriy discovered vodka.01:00:06
And he drank away his job.01:00:08
His family and a bunch of things to worry about.01:00:12
And now Valeriy is vibing.01:00:14
Valeriy, you okay?01:00:17
I said "Valeriy, you okay?"01:00:18
4Okay.01:00:19
See? Valeriy is okay. Be like Valeriy.01:00:23
This complete shitshow01:00:26
was observed by the oil industry01:00:28
that went like: "What's that?"01:00:31
Alcohol will be banned and we'll have no competitors.01:00:34
That is some great news. Let's toast!01:00:37
Cheers, mates, we'll show those alcoholics, yes!01:00:41
For quite a while the government had resisted the pressure.01:00:44
Since alcohol tax accounts for a huge share of national budget.01:00:49
But after a couple more years of pressure from the public01:00:52
they finally gave up.01:00:54
The prohibition law goes into effect in 192001:00:57
and remains in place until 1933.01:01:00
The law implied the total prohibition of alcohol production, distribution and trade.01:01:06
Which is important, because the law01:01:08
utterly and completely destroyed01:01:11
the idea of ICEs running on spirits.01:01:13
Yes, that was the age of bootleggers01:01:16
who illegally produced and sold alcohol to underground bars.01:01:20
The alcohol remained.01:01:21
But getting into legal problems01:01:24
just to refill your automobile01:01:26
was too risky.01:01:28
It's way easier to go to a gas station,01:01:31
which everyone did.01:01:32
And if I had to describe this whole story in one sentence:01:01:36
Henry Ford graced the world with an accessible car01:01:39
and conveyor belts,01:01:41
John Rockefeller provided car industry with the infrastructure,01:01:45
and the US government created the environment where01:01:48
the only affordable fuel for the ICE vehicles was gasoline.01:01:53
And just as it happened to whale oil,01:01:55
people were quick to forget all the ICE alternatives01:01:58
when ICE vehicles became the cheapest product on the market.01:02:03
Not to mention the convenient infrastructure around it.01:02:05
But as soon as this infrastructure grew in volumes01:02:10
another problem came to play.01:02:12
You'd think what problems could there be? Car sales are skyrocketing,01:02:16
with more and more manufacturers appearing every day,01:02:19
gas network is growing like weed01:02:22
and the money is flowing.01:02:23
All's perfect.01:02:24
But, all of a sudden01:02:27
they ran out of oil. Well, almost.01:02:30
According to geologists' and market analysists' estimations01:02:33
the world's supply of oil would run out in twenty years.01:02:36
Around the forties.01:02:37
Yup. All the noise01:02:39
that we hear each day like01:02:41
"Oil is about to run out, what are we going to do?01:02:44
We have to come up with a better alternative now!"01:02:47
didn't start in the last decades of the 20th century.01:02:50
But in the first one.01:02:51
Almost immediately after the world's car stock became substantial.01:02:55
And back then people were certain01:02:58
that a couple of decades later they will completely run out of fuel.01:03:02
Apparently, we've been driving on oil that ran out 80 years ago.01:03:05
Imagine that.01:03:06
Back then most oil wells01:03:08
were located in Pennsylvania, USA01:03:10
and Venezuela.01:03:12
By the way, oil in Venezuela was extracted by Standard Oil as well.01:03:15
This branch would later become Exxon.01:03:18
Massive oil reserves in Texas01:03:20
hadn't been discovered by then.01:03:22
And the known reserves would have ended by the forties.01:03:26
All the oil companies invested in the exploration of the new deposits01:03:31
but to no avail.01:03:33
The World War One taught all the nations in the world01:03:37
that a reliable supply of fuel01:03:39
was a matter of security.01:03:41
All the military vehicles needed fuel.01:03:43
And if you have none,01:03:45
you have no military equipment and no defense potential.01:03:49
And there was no solution.01:03:50
Everyone was anxious and hoped that somebody would find a solution.01:04:08
By the beginning of the thirties the oil situation became a real problem.01:04:12
Firstly, people couldn't imagine life without cars01:04:15
because they became a part of their everyday lives01:04:18
and more importantly a part of economy.01:04:21
If the government, car companies and oil extractors allowed the oil running out01:04:26
the whole system would have collapsed.01:04:29
Both the economy and the power industry.01:04:32
The oil and its products were used to fuel cars01:04:36
which was the main way of transport for the people and the goods.01:04:39
It was also used to power factories01:04:42
which replaced manual labor with machinery.01:04:45
Not to mention the power plants01:04:47
and central heating01:04:48
that were fueled by oil products.01:04:50
If oil ran out, it wouldn't have meant just the end of automobiles01:04:55
but a total black-out01:04:58
of the whole lifestyle.01:04:59
And when the government and the car companies are given an ultimatum01:05:04
of whether solving the problem01:05:06
or just going down,01:05:08
ecology, world peace and other sentiments01:05:13
are the last thing to worry about.01:05:17
The solution was needed.01:05:18
No matter the cost.01:05:37
Chapter 3. Tetraethyl Lead01:05:42
There's a thing in the US called the American Petroleum Institute.01:05:46
Basically, it's an organization established by the oil companies to represent their interests on a national level.01:05:53
As soon as an industry becomes a substantial part of economy01:05:57
and generates wealth01:05:59
the government quite understandably desires to gain more control over it01:06:03
and push regulations down its throat01:06:06
while also collecting more tax money.01:06:08
A normal desire.01:06:10
While the industry is interested in maximizing profits01:06:14
maximizing their freedoms and maximizing their own opportunities.01:06:19
And usually such organizations are created by the government01:06:23
But the American Petroleum Institute,01:06:24
API for short, is the only01:06:28
non-governmental organization of its kind.01:06:31
It was an initiative of private companies01:06:34
by these private companies' own hands.01:06:37
In addition to the government01:06:39
the oil industry was constantly pushed by car companies01:06:42
who believed that low quality fuel would drastically decrease the engine's service life.01:06:48
Back then ethanol was a more efficient and safer alternative.01:06:52
So, to protect itself from this pressure the industry's representatives established01:06:57
an organization to deal with all that crap.01:07:00
All the companies invested in it,01:07:02
established a corporate budget of a few million dollars01:07:05
and let the Institute solve their problems while they were busy making money.01:07:08
In addition to that, the institute was supposed to oversee the geologists01:07:12
who searched for new oilfields.01:07:14
But the search wasn't quite successful.01:07:17
So they believed that the oil would soon run out.01:07:20
There were two main problems that the institute had to solve here and now.01:07:26
One - the oil running out thing.01:07:28
Two - figuring out what's responsible for the engines breaking down.01:07:33
The oil industry addressed all the complaints about low quality fuel01:07:37
with a statement that their engines are just shit.01:07:39
Which was the reason for them breaking down.01:07:41
Such "You gay, no you" polemics01:07:44
never ended too well.01:07:47
Fortunately they knew that.01:07:49
They also knew that the truth lies somewhere inbetween.01:07:52
The fuel was bad but the engines were too.01:07:55
The most important thing the petrol institute did01:07:58
was creating the ground and the climate for a constructive discussion.01:08:02
Representatives from both industries gathered at the round table to discuss the matters at hand.01:08:08
And when you create the climate where people can negotiate01:08:11
and come up with a solution together01:08:14
they will definitely find one.01:08:16
And strangely enough, the solution to the whole fuel and engines problem01:08:21
was found by a car industry representative.01:08:23
Say hello to Charles Kettering01:08:26
Some of you are thinking: "Wait a sec, this face seems familiar."01:08:31
Yes, that's right. You've just passed the attentiveness test.01:08:34
Here's a smooch.01:08:36
Charles Kettering is the man who invented the electric starter.01:08:40
By that time he'd become the head of GM's research department.01:08:44
Remember how I said that GM bought out Delco, the company Kettering established01:08:47
when he invented the starter.01:08:50
Well, Charles was a bonus to that purchase.01:08:52
That was just a perfect deal for Kettering01:08:55
since he was an inventor01:08:57
and the whole business building and company running gig wasn't his cup of tea.01:09:02
He just wanted to invent stuff.01:09:04
And it's hard to refuse when GM comes to you01:09:07
and says: "Here's our research department."01:09:09
"Do what you want.01:09:11
We'll also pay you for that."01:09:13
In fact, Kettering was one of the brightest American inventors.01:09:17
Throughout his life he received 186 patents01:09:21
for his inventions.01:09:23
Before he established Delco he was working for a telephone company01:09:26
where he came up with a system that allowed the call to be directed to a certain number.01:09:32
When telephone lines were first created if you were to make a call01:09:35
telephones rang on the whole street.01:09:38
You couldn't have just call a specific person.01:09:40
the whole line was ringing.01:09:42
And Kettering solved that problem when he was just a phone company clerk.01:09:47
Just imagine. If you had to make a call home01:09:51
at the same time you called your neighbors.01:09:55
Hello?01:09:56
Sweetheart. Connect me with all the women in the area.01:10:00
But there's just a retirement community on this street.01:10:03
It's okay. We're going old school.01:10:06
Then Charles worked in the sphere trade automation, where he invented the automatic cash register.01:10:13
You know the classic sound that cash register makes from all the American movies.01:10:20
Kettering invented it.01:10:22
Then he started working in the car industry and invented the electric starter01:10:26
and a bunch of other stuff.01:10:28
What I'm saying is the guy was a brainiac.01:10:31
When he got into fuel01:10:32
he had a hypothesis that there were two things needed to save oil.01:10:36
One - making a high-octane gasoline01:10:38
which would handle the compression better.01:10:41
Two - designing an engine that would handle high compression ratio without falling apart.01:10:47
All that put together will reduce gasoline consumption while improving the engine's efficiency.01:10:54
To put it simply, so anyone could understand,01:10:58
here's how it works.01:10:59
We all loosely know how ICE works.01:11:03
A piston moves up compressing the air and the fuel in the cylinder.01:11:08
When it hits max compression01:11:10
at the point where piston stops01:11:14
the compressor air-fuel mix is ignited with a spark.01:11:17
Which starts the combustion.01:11:19
The mix expands, releasing enough energy to push the piston back down.01:11:25
And pistons are connected to the crankshaft.01:11:27
That metal thingy we've already discussed.01:11:30
So by transferring the energy to this cranckshaft they make it spin.01:11:34
Now listen closely.01:11:36
What I'm going to say is not that simple but I believe in you.01:11:39
If you got the whole stock market story from the last episode01:11:43
compression ratio won't be a problem.01:11:46
The distance01:11:47
that the piston covers from its lowest to its highest position01:11:50
is measured in centimeters.01:11:52
Let's say we have ten centimeters.01:11:55
Ten centimeters is not a sin, as they say.01:11:57
They also measure the gap the piston doesn't cover01:12:01
where the compressed mixture goes.01:12:03
Let's say, it's one centimeter.01:12:07
And the ratio between these lengths01:12:09
is called compression ratio.01:12:10
In our case it's ten to one.01:12:12
Question.01:12:14
Considering we have the same amount of fuel01:12:17
in which case will the fuel ignition release more energy?01:12:21
When the compression ratio is five to one01:12:23
or when it's ten to one.01:12:26
Think.01:12:27
The right answer is ten to one, because that way you'll compress more air01:12:32
which boosts the combustion.01:12:34
So the more air we have, the better it will burn and the more energy we get.01:12:38
There's one but.01:12:40
When the compression is too rapid and heavy01:12:43
the temperature rises as well.01:12:45
That is where gasoline characteristics come to play.01:12:47
What happens01:12:49
if you push the air and the gas to its limits.01:12:53
At some point they will explode.01:12:55
Because if you compress anything hard enough01:12:58
the temperature will rise indefinitely.01:13:00
And there's a certain point where gasoline explodes.01:13:03
I hope that is clear.01:13:05
Did you get that?01:13:07
Nice.01:13:08
Now imagine a typical gas station01:13:10
and fueling nozzles with numbers like 92, 95 or 98.01:13:14
Some of you may remember 80 and 72.01:13:17
This number is called octane level.01:13:20
The higher the number01:13:22
the higher the pressure and the temperature this gas can handle01:13:26
without explosion.01:13:27
Understand? The higher the number, the more you can compress the gas.01:13:31
The lower it is, the faster this gas will explode under pressure.01:13:35
This characteristic only depends on the gasoline quality01:13:39
and the additives it contains.01:13:42
If you fill your high compression engine with low-octane gasoline01:13:47
that couldn't handle higher compression ratio01:13:50
the moment the piston goes up01:13:53
to compress the mix01:13:54
at some point the gasoline will start combusting and exploding.01:13:58
This explosion will create a small shockwave.01:14:02
which will hit the piston01:14:04
and the cylinder's walls.01:14:05
while the piston is still moving up in the direction opposite to it.01:14:09
This shit is called detonation.01:14:11
And it is one of the most notorious engine killers.01:14:14
If you fill a modern engine with low octane fuel01:14:18
the engine will immediately start falling apart.01:14:21
That's why the fuel type and the characteristics of the engine01:14:25
are parts of an equation car manufacturers constantly play around with.01:14:29
And every car has recommendations printed on it that go01:14:32
"You've got to fuel it with gasoline of such and such quality".01:14:35
If it's higher, the gasoline will handle the compression.01:14:38
If it's lower, say hello to detonation and the car mechanic.01:14:41
I hope it's clear now.01:14:43
Blink if you got it.01:14:45
Well done.01:14:46
Here's another smooch.01:14:48
Who else would kiss you for knowing what compression ratio is.01:14:52
No one.01:14:53
Only the man with dyed hair.01:14:55
So let's kiss and talk pressure.01:14:58
Blood pressure in my d-01:15:00
The problem is the gasoline back then had octane number somewhere around fifty.01:15:06
And the industry had no interest in making better fuel.01:15:09
Because you'd have to rebuild all the refineries, and that's expensive.01:15:13
It's much cheaper than saying "Go fuck yourself."01:15:16
And the industry did just that.01:15:19
A nice budget option.01:15:20
That's why the engines were loud as hell01:15:23
and fell apart due to detonation.01:15:25
While ethanol had a way higher compression ratio.01:15:29
Which made it a better alternative to gasoline.01:15:33
Sadly, the prohibition came.01:15:35
So Kettering said "I'll deal with that.01:15:38
I have the brains, easy as cake."01:15:41
His laboratory colleague was this fine gentleman.01:15:44
Thomas Midgley, a young chemist.01:15:46
Together they believed that they could create an additive01:15:49
that could increase the fuel's octane number.01:15:53
So they started pouring everything they had into gasoline to see what happens.01:15:57
At some point they mixed gasoline with iodine01:16:00
and the engine did start running better.01:16:03
So they went "Ooh! That's probably because iodine is red.01:16:07
The red color absorbs the heat."01:16:10
And started pouring the paint there. Says a lot about the state of chemistry back then.01:16:14
Obviously, not even the paint the color of the coldest ice01:16:18
could decrease the fuel compression heat.01:16:20
but that didn't stop them.01:16:22
They had their fun.01:16:23
Meanwhile GM started panicking.01:16:26
The company was losing money01:16:28
and the market to Ford because William Durant01:16:31
spent most of his budget buying out every company he could without caring much about their efficiency.01:16:37
Durant gets kicked out from the company01:16:39
and Pierre du Pont takes his place.01:16:41
He was a famous entrepreneur and crisis manager.01:16:44
As a crisis manager he had a clear and simple logic.01:16:48
If something doesn't increase company's profit01:16:52
he got rid of it.01:16:53
Looking through budget reports he find Kettering01:16:56
with his partner and gets them to his office.01:16:59
He told them something along the lines of01:17:01
whether you give us something we can profit off of01:17:05
or file your resignation letters.01:17:07
At the time, the only working thing that Midgley had01:17:11
was ethanol.01:17:12
Personally, he drove his car01:17:14
with a mixture of 40% ethanol and 60% gasoline.01:17:19
Whether he drank these 40% or used it as a fuel is a mystery.01:17:23
They couldn't come up with anything that implied the use of pure gasoline.01:17:26
And even if the prohibition law would have been lifted,01:17:29
this wouldn't help them much01:17:31
because you can't patent ethanol fuel.01:17:34
Which means you can't profit off of it.01:17:36
While du Pont needed something01:17:38
that GM could patent01:17:40
and sell as their own product to other manufacturers01:17:43
and, ideally, to the whole oil industry.01:17:45
Midgley started to panic.01:17:47
First of all, by the year 1920, the development has already lasted for five years.01:17:52
The guys started their first fuel experiments in 1915.01:17:56
And Thomas was desperate to find a solution.01:18:00
It's hard to give up when you've been trying to solve a problem for five years.01:18:05
Second of all, he respected Kettering didn't want to let him down01:18:09
because his head would have been the first to roll.01:18:12
As superior's.01:18:13
All that pressure01:18:15
resulted in Midgley starting to experiment with elements of different levels of toxicity.01:18:21
And hail Mary!01:18:23
He quickly found the solution.01:18:25
The wonder element was lead.01:18:27
Adding a few grams of lead to a whole gallon of gasoline01:18:31
neutralized the detonation.01:18:33
And the engine worked smoothly, quietly and suffered no power loss.01:18:37
Plus, lead is cheap.01:18:39
It was easy to find and the industry was familiar with it01:18:42
since by that time it was already used01:18:44
in the production of pipelines, bullets01:18:47
and even paint.01:18:49
Easy as that.01:18:50
Midgley comes to Kettering and says01:18:52
"Look, here's the thing. It works perfectly01:18:55
but I'm still worried about the lead contents.01:18:58
Potentially, it's not too good for your health."01:19:01
Kettering skims through results01:19:05
analyzes the data and understands that it was their answer.01:19:08
Even better, because it solves the detonation problem,01:19:12
is easy to produce and the formula can also be patented.01:19:16
Who cares about lead.01:19:17
Half the country uses lead paint.01:19:19
Not a big deal.01:19:21
In 1921 Kettering patents a lead fuel additive01:19:25
called tetraethyl lead.01:19:27
TEL for short.01:19:29
It was recommended to add half a gram of lead to a liter of fuel.01:19:33
Kettering presents the invention to the GM's board of directors.01:19:38
And the American Chemical Society.01:19:40
In the presentation he provided the data01:19:42
and said that the additive increased gasoline's octane number from fifty to ninety five01:19:47
and greatly decreases its consumption.01:19:50
The board was in awe.01:19:52
Everybody cheers, Kettering and Midgley finally got their recognition for solving a problem.01:19:58
The Chemical Society gave them mad respect, a handshake and a pat on the back.01:20:02
While the GM chiefs are already counting their potential profits.01:20:05
According to their calculations, if they were to take just one fifth of the oil market01:20:11
they would look at the net income of thirty six millions per year.01:20:16
And the market is growing,01:20:18
so the potential income in ten to fifteen years period01:20:21
would have been sky high.01:20:23
In the year 192301:20:25
the first tank of leaded gasoline hit the shelves.01:20:28
And a couple of months later GM and Standard Oil01:20:32
established the joint production of leaded gasoline,01:20:35
which was named Ethyl.01:20:36
The company was to supply fuel to all the country's gas stations.01:20:40
Obviously, they put Kettering in the chair of the plant director,01:20:43
while Midgley became his vice.01:20:45
Success. Time for fireworks.01:20:47
But in all that noise01:20:50
nobody noticed the faint voices of specialists from Yale and Harvard01:20:55
who reported on lead being dangerous.01:20:58
They cited a case with one of their post-grads01:21:01
who experimented on lead01:21:04
died of poisoning.01:21:05
And Thomas Midgley, the inventor of the additive01:21:08
couldn't participate in the Chemical Society award ceremony01:21:12
lying sick in bed.01:21:14
With digestive dysfunction, abnormally low body temperature01:21:17
and low blood pressure.01:21:19
Which were the symptoms of severe lead poisoning.01:21:31
Chapter 4. Poison on the Conveyor Belt01:21:38
All the cheering about the success of Ethyl manufactory's newest invention has not settled down yet,01:21:43
when the production faced the weird health problems of their workers.01:21:47
At some point some of the workers started to behave funny.01:21:51
Like taking sick leaves abnormally often, compared to all the other factories.01:21:58
And some people stopped showing up at work at all.01:22:01
Midgley, the inventor of TEL01:22:03
and the factory's vice president,01:22:04
promptly rushes to the plant as soon as he gets up on his feet to figure out what's the reason for all this.01:22:12
And the reason was the following.01:22:14
Throughout 1923, when the plant was opened,01:22:17
several people died of dehydration and organ failure at their homes.01:22:22
And several dozens of workers went to the mental asylum.01:22:26
While the ones still working01:22:28
were shaking on their feet01:22:30
and behaved generally weird.01:22:32
And Midgley was like:01:22:34
"So, apparently we're killing people.01:22:39
Another one. We're definitely killing people.01:22:43
And I'm not even at the plant yet."01:22:45
The toxicity of lead was a well known fact.01:22:48
Chemists have been experimenting on it for the entirety of modern history01:22:52
because it's so common in nature.01:22:55
And everyone knew01:22:56
that if you mix anything with lead01:22:59
and pour it on something01:23:01
that something is done for.01:23:04
And if you also breathe in the fumes01:23:06
you're as good as dead.01:23:08
For people whose brains are rustling at the idea of metal01:23:12
that can you can pour something and also breathe in, here's the deal.01:23:15
Tetraethyl lead is a volatile liquid.01:23:18
Volatile liquid is any liquid that evaporates fast.01:23:22
Roughly speaking, what would happen01:23:24
if you fill your hookah with, say, wine.01:23:27
You'll get drunk after a couple of drags.01:23:29
That is clear.01:23:30
And why is that?01:23:33
Because ethanol is a volatile liquid.01:23:35
It's easy to evaporate.01:23:37
And alcohol vapors are instantly absorbed to your bloodstream through lungs.01:23:40
Since the whole reason lungs exist is to instantly and directly absorb oxygen into your bloodstream.01:23:46
And blood transfers alcohol vapors to the entirety of your body and voila, you're drunk.01:23:52
When you drink alcohol it absorbs through your digestive system01:23:57
where it's filtered by the liver and other organs.01:24:00
While lungs are like a direct blood injection.01:24:04
And tetraethyl lead is the shit as volatile as alcohol,01:24:09
but it contains ethyl chloride, lead and sodium.01:24:13
If you mix these ingredients in certain proportions01:24:16
you get a liquid.01:24:18
And if your brain still rustles01:24:20
from the idea of mixing metal with something or dissolving it01:24:23
here's one more thing.01:24:24
Remember chemistry classes?01:24:26
I know they weren't your favorite, but at least remember you had them.01:24:30
Good job.01:24:31
Do you remember such thing as "hydrochloric acid"?01:24:34
I bet that triggered one hell of a flashback for people who hated chemistry classes.01:24:39
Be brave, I feel you.01:24:41
Basically, hydrochloric acid is hydrogen and chlorine.01:24:43
You can buy that shit literally anywhere.01:24:47
If you dip aluminum in it, the whole piece of it01:24:50
it will dissolve.01:24:52
Thus, hydrogen in the acid will burst into bubbles01:24:55
and you'll have aluminum chloride left in a vial.01:24:59
Which is a liquid.01:25:00
That used to be a whole piece of metal.01:25:02
So I hope you get the point.01:25:04
Did ya?01:25:05
A nod. Good job.01:25:07
Here's the third smooch.01:25:09
Tetraethyl lead is produced by reacting ethyl chloride01:25:13
with a sodium-lead alloy.01:25:15
None of the three ingredients are good for your body, believe me.01:25:18
In the reaction sodium and chlorine01:25:21
turn into vapors01:25:22
and the only things left are01:25:23
H - hydrogen,01:25:25
C - carbon,01:25:27
and I. I fucked your mom.01:25:31
No, there's no I in lead.01:25:33
As a result, we get a highly volatile liquid01:25:37
and lead is literally floating in the air.01:25:39
And if you breathe in enough lead vapors,01:25:42
tetraethyl lead will first damage your brain01:25:45
and whole nervous system.01:25:47
Anything that has neural endings is instantly screwed.01:25:51
And neural endings, spoiler,01:25:53
are literally everywhere.01:25:55
The only organ in a human body that doesn't have neural endings is your ex's heart.01:25:59
Mental health deteriorates.01:26:01
You feel general weakness and the entire body starts failing on you01:26:05
as all of its internal processes are damaged.01:26:08
But we know that now.01:26:10
While back then everyone knew that lead is like not very good01:26:14
but nothing too scary.01:26:17
But what's important is that Midgley01:26:18
knew how dangerous his invention was.01:26:21
He experienced what TEL poisoning felt like firsthand.01:26:26
That's why he wasn't even sure01:26:28
if that additive should be mass produced at all.01:26:32
And when people started dying on his plant01:26:35
he knew he was responsible.01:26:38
He run up to Kettering and said01:26:40
"The peasants! the peasants, my lord, they're dying like flies. Everyone's gone. The flies, the peasants.01:26:47
And if we get caught, you know what else will be gone?01:26:51
Our anal virginity.01:26:54
Though we shouldn't be worried.01:26:55
We all remember the summer of 1987.01:26:58
Kettering calms him down01:27:00
and tells him that many corporations are working around toxic elements01:27:03
and their workers aren't dying by dozens.01:27:06
It's all about safety regulations.01:27:09
Workers just have to be properly trained and everything will go easy peezy lemon squeezy.01:27:15
It's GM, that's what all of their safety documentation looks like.01:27:20
There's no other explanation for Chevrolet Cruise existence.01:27:23
Anyway, Kettering calmed Midgley down01:27:25
and told him he'll look into that.01:27:28
Though everything Kettering did was hire another chemist.01:27:31
Robert Kehoe, this guy.01:27:33
He tasked him with making TEL production safe.01:27:37
And also do all the worker training needed.01:27:41
Kehoe confidently agreed01:27:43
and started to work.01:27:45
But the real problem wasn't the deaths on the plant.01:27:50
But the fact the press found out.01:27:53
Because immediately all the big newspapers started printing headlines like01:27:58
"Mysterious gas drives people crazy"01:28:02
"Unknown toxin kills the workers on Ethyl production."01:28:05
"People go insane on the Ethyl factory and who's responsible for all the dead workers and their families? "01:28:12
A year after, in 1924 two more workers died on site.01:28:18
Plus, a few dozens more were sent to the mental asylum.01:28:22
And according to the press allegations,01:28:25
a few more workers just killed themselves at their homes.01:28:29
The press was tearing down the Ethyl plant, GM and Standard Oil.01:28:34
GM and Standard remained silent01:28:36
while Kettering made releases for the press from time to time to answer their questions.01:28:41
He shouldn't have done that.01:28:42
For example, during one of the press conferences that was held after another death on site,01:28:49
when asked "Why did your employee die on site?"01:28:53
Kettering answered "Uh, he probably worked too hard."01:28:57
Obviously, such comments made the people hate him even more.01:29:02
The scandal got out of hand01:29:05
and it couldn't have been ignored01:29:07
even on national level.01:29:08
American Health association01:29:11
along with the government officials01:29:14
stops the production and calls the directors01:29:17
saying "What have you done?"01:29:21
Ethyl decided that it wasn't a good idea to let Kettering speak on their behalf01:29:25
because he might say some dumb shit like "We're all born to die"01:29:29
which is just as good as starting to look for a new job.01:29:32
So they sent Robert Kehoe to do the talking.01:29:36
And Kehoe had his way with words, I tell you.01:29:40
First, he said "Everything we had done was experimental,01:29:45
It's just our first batch and since TEL is brand new01:29:49
we'll figure out a way to optimize the production01:29:51
and everything will be fine, don't worry about the safety, we'll deal with that.01:29:55
I promise."01:29:56
And second, Kehoe was like "Do you have any proof that TEL was the cause of their deaths?01:30:02
Yes, the corpses lying around is a fact, can't argue that.01:30:05
But people die of a lot of things.01:30:07
His wife bought an Opel recently, that's why his engine stalled.01:30:11
And you want to close our plant.01:30:13
When you have the evidence that people are dying of tetraethyl lead poisoning,01:30:18
then we'll talk.01:30:20
If you want to close us down, then prove it.01:30:23
But now I think that TEL is safe.01:30:26
Because you can't prove me wrong.01:30:28
And that worked.01:30:30
The Health Association01:30:33
had prepared for a three day trial.01:30:36
But the first day after Kehoe's speech01:30:39
the commission went home01:30:40
and approved the plant functioning01:30:41
because they really didn't have any real evidence.01:30:45
And all the rumors and newspaper headlines weren't substantial enough to close down the factory.01:30:51
But Kehoe wasn't only good at talking the talk, he also walked the walk.01:30:58
He started investigation all the cases of death on site01:31:02
by questioning the sick01:31:04
affected workers, overseeing all the processes on the plant,01:31:07
measuring the gas levels and so on.01:31:11
And he fixed all the problems wherever he found one.01:31:15
First of all, he completely redesigned the plant' ventilation system.01:31:19
and also installed fans at every production bay.01:31:22
Second of all,01:31:23
he designed and implemented special protective gear01:31:26
that protected the skin from contacting chemicals.01:31:29
Third of all, he made it so every worker had to go through mandatory training01:31:34
before he was allowed to work there.01:31:36
Basically, Kehoe just implemented normal safety regulations.01:31:40
And forced all the workers comply with it.01:31:43
It's a normal thing for modern world01:31:45
but back then few corporations cared about their workers getting harmed on site.01:31:51
Plus, Kehoe bargained with GM and Standard Oil01:31:53
to get the funds for the establishment of the new laboratory01:31:56
which would have done the research on the effects of TEL on human body01:32:01
and carrying out the studies of other toxic materials.01:32:04
Obviously, corporations were glad to sponsor the man who prevented their factory's closure.01:32:10
But on one condition.01:32:11
Any materials and articles laboratory puts out were to be reviewed by Standard Oil and General Motors specialists before publication.01:32:19
The important thing is that GM and Standard specialists had the right to edit01:32:23
and comment any materials,01:32:25
so corporations still had the final say on whether to publish those materials or not.01:32:29
Basically, it means that the lawyers and executives of these companies,01:32:34
GM and Standard,01:32:36
decided what research to make public and what to classify and hide from everybody.01:32:42
That said, all the materials on TEL were classified from day one.01:32:45
Company executives never used words like "TEL, toxin and lead" in their personal letters01:32:51
and official documents.01:32:53
All the laboratory documentation like negotiation and meeting reports concerning TEL01:32:58
were declassified just recently.01:33:00
And one of the documents mentions that just a couple of days01:33:04
before the conference with the American Health Association,01:33:08
Kettering and some GM and Standard lawyers01:33:12
paid a personal visit to the head of association.01:33:14
It's hard to say what they discussed,01:33:17
but certainly not the weather.01:33:19
Meanwhile, Kehoe's laboratory was ready with its first results01:33:23
which have shown01:33:24
that each and single one of the factory workers had excessive content of lead in their blood.01:33:30
No matter whether they worked with TEL directly01:33:33
or just cleaned the neighboring production bays.01:33:36
Even the workers01:33:37
who have never touched TEL in their lives01:33:39
had a shit ton of lead in their blood.01:33:42
And this research made Kehoe come to the conclusion01:33:46
that lead is a natural element for human blood.01:33:48
Every worker has it, yup. Alrightly.01:33:52
Means it's completely normal.01:33:53
Who cares that we didn't test people who don't work for us.01:33:57
We won't mention that.01:33:59
That's just a margin of error.01:34:01
Facts and logic.01:34:03
Conclusion two.01:34:04
If lead is naturally found in blood01:34:07
then there is a norm for it.01:34:09
Let it be 80 milligrams for a 100 milliliters of blood.01:34:13
Why? Dunno, I just like the number.01:34:15
That is literally how they justyfied it.01:34:18
Just because.01:34:20
And that number implied that if someone had 79 milligrams of lead, he was just fine.01:34:25
And if he had 81, he is screwed and beyond saving.01:34:27
And those were the statements Kehoe made to officials01:34:30
health comissioners, the public and such.01:34:33
Lead is fine, here's the norm01:34:36
and our workers are within it.01:34:38
Any arguments against it? Well, there were none.01:34:41
No one had any data on lead and for the most part nobody cared.01:34:45
The public settled down and there's that.01:34:48
And tetraethyl lead production went on.01:34:50
And a couple of years later leaded gasoline was sold on every gas station in America01:34:57
and soon, the world.01:34:59
From a broader point of view, leaded gasoline was a good thing for the oil industry.01:35:05
Since he did reduce the gasoline consumption01:35:07
due to better properties01:35:09
and helped preserving the oil.01:35:11
Which was running out, may I remind you.01:35:13
The search for new oilfields was at dead end.01:35:17
It stayed this way from the year 1919,01:35:19
when the Petroleum Institute was founded,01:35:22
up until 1924, when leaded gasoline hit the market.01:35:27
They just couldn't find the oilfields with substantial volumes of oil.01:35:31
The situation remained the same from 1924 to 1930s.01:35:35
They searched in Pennsylvania and other states,01:35:38
but all they could find were small oil wells01:35:41
that could have postponed the crisis for only two jears.01:35:45
And Standard Oil had no choice.01:35:47
By Standard Oil I mean all its post-breakup subsidiaries.01:35:52
Even though they had different names, their beneficiary still remained the same.01:35:58
But in the year 193301:36:01
the phone rang in one of the company's offices.01:36:04
The caller's name was Carl Twitchell.01:36:07
He was a good friend of some of the subsidiary's executives.01:36:11
Carl called Lloyd Hamilton.01:36:14
This guy.01:36:15
One of the biggest Standard lawyers.01:36:18
Over the telephone Carl told him something like that:01:36:21
"I don't care01:36:23
if you have any plans.01:36:25
You're going to drop whatever you're doing, pack your things, take the damn plane and come to me".01:36:30
Lloyd was a little bit shocked by this approach01:36:34
but asked anyway:01:36:35
"Where do I go to?'01:36:38
The answer was Saudi Arabia.01:36:46
Chapter 5. Thirst for Money01:36:51
The first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions01:36:55
the first half of the 20th century are the world wars01:36:56
in which half of the world participated.01:36:58
And in addition to the piles of bodies01:37:00
and broken human lives01:37:02
those two wars drastically changed the national borders.01:37:05
Some conquered new territories,01:37:07
some colonies revolted and overthrowed the imperial control,01:37:11
some nations gathered together to unite into one huge country.01:37:16
And through the unification of some regions Saudi Arabia was created.01:37:20
The Arabic penninsula had four regions01:37:23
Najda, Hejaz, Al-Hasa and Al-Qatif.01:37:27
In 1932 they united to form a country named Saudi Arabia.01:37:34
This dude became the head of the newborn nation.01:37:38
Abdel Aziz the second.01:37:40
In his mother tongue his name was Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud.01:37:46
It must be cool to be the king of Saudi Arabia.01:37:49
Walk around wrapped in a blanket, here's your harem,01:37:52
here's your hookah, a real tiger.01:37:55
As some of you might think.01:37:57
That might be true, but I must explain what Saudi Arabia looked like in 1932.01:38:02
It looked something like that.01:38:08
There were no crickets even, we edited them in.01:38:11
All there was was sand, camels and arabs.01:38:15
Not arians, which is important to note considering the time period.01:38:21
If you look around and examine the landscape01:38:25
you can see one problem.01:38:27
There's no water.01:38:29
Not having water is like the whole desert thing.01:38:32
And dying without water is like the whole human body thing.01:38:36
Even if the politicians made the statement01:38:38
that you had to tighten your belts01:38:40
and just be patient01:38:41
because it's no time to drink water, but once we've built communism-01:38:44
Obviously, I'm kidding,01:38:46
but the problem was quite serious.01:38:48
They had no water, no rains to be seen,01:38:50
and Arabia didn't have the money to buy water from other countries.01:38:54
Now, in the modern days, every other citizen of Saudi Arabia is an ukrainian escort model,01:39:00
who are an important sign of wealth,01:39:02
but back then they had no funds at all.01:39:05
The government knew that they couldn't solve the problem on their own01:39:08
since they had no money, no time and no specialists.01:39:12
There was only a theory that there was water in the desert.01:39:16
And they placed their hopes on it.01:39:18
Aside from sand, there were also rocky areas in the desert01:39:20
and so they hoped that they could dig up some subterranean waters.01:39:26
So the government invited this guy to do the research.01:39:29
Carl Twitchell, an experienced biologist and oil driller.01:39:33
He agreed to help,01:39:34
gathered an expedition and went on gathering soil samples in the desert01:39:37
and poking around every hole he could find.01:39:41
They found no water, but in every place Carl took samples from01:39:46
he found signs of oil without fail.01:39:48
When the expedition ended, he told Abdul-Aziz something like that:01:39:53
"Boss, I don't know what you're going to drink,01:39:55
but I know what you're going to sell.01:39:58
But I need help. I can't do this alone.01:40:01
I have a couple of friends, so let me make some calls and I'll arrange everything."01:40:06
At this point Carl called the Standard Oil executives01:40:09
and says that they need to drop everything and come there.01:40:12
As soon as the oil industry big shots smelled money,01:40:15
they were quick to offer Saudi Arabia help in the geophysical investigations and all that,01:40:20
like "We're the real gentlemen,01:40:22
we want to help you discover and develop the oilfields01:40:25
and we're obviously cover all the expenses.01:40:28
Don't you worry one bit, our dear01:40:30
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud or whatever your name was.01:40:34
The saudi government that the west needs oil and fuel,01:40:38
but they had no idea how to extract and refine it,01:40:42
what volumes they needed, how much does cost and so on.01:40:46
They knew everything about camels.01:40:48
One hump, two humps, anything.01:40:51
But jack shit about oil.01:40:52
So it was hard to refuse01:40:54
when a bunch of fine gentlemen from Standard Oil arrive01:40:57
with a big smile01:40:58
telling that they would arrange everything and01:41:00
cover the expenses handing you a brand new hookah.01:41:04
And there was no point in refusal.01:41:06
They could have told everyone to bugger off, but they still had no money to develop the wells.01:41:10
So no choice.01:41:11
And they made a deal.01:41:13
Standard Oil covers all the expenses like prospecting, developing, facility building,01:41:18
constructing the pipelines and deserves the right to extract oil.01:41:22
But that oil still belongs to Saudi Arabia, so the company has to pay a tax for every barrel they sell.01:41:29
Basically, Saudi Arabia recieved a ton of tax money from the company01:41:35
and then used this money to solve their problems like buying water, filling hookahs with it and living their lives.01:41:41
They held a grand opening ceremony of the first pipeline in 1939.01:41:46
Look at their happy faces.01:41:48
And like the US who needed oil for their industry wasn't enough,01:41:52
the world war two started the same year.01:41:55
So the demand for fuel and energy sources increased.01:41:58
And that boosted the construction of new refineries,01:42:02
because there were way more oilfields then people originally thought.01:42:07
Not only in Saudi Arabia,01:42:09
but the whole region.01:42:10
In twenty years from the forties to the sixties01:42:13
oil extraction spreads over the whole Middle East.01:42:16
And the whole thing is ruled by so called seven sisters:01:42:18
Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell,01:42:21
Texaco, Chevron, Mobil, Gulf Oil and British Petroleum.01:42:25
What's more important is that all those companies used to be Standard Oil.01:42:30
And their extraction and development had the same terms.01:42:34
We do everything and pay the tax.01:42:37
And the tax was based on the price per barrel of oil.01:42:40
Due to the immense volumes01:42:43
the oil was much cheaper for the corporations01:42:47
than the one extracted in the US, even with the shipment in mind.01:42:50
The sisters extracted 80% of all the Middle Eastern oil.01:42:55
But even that wasn't enough.01:42:57
Corporations made arrangements with each other01:43:00
deliberately keeping the oil prices down.01:43:03
To keep the tax as low as possible.01:43:05
In a nutshell, it looked like this. They bought oil from themselves01:43:10
for their own oil refineries.01:43:13
So the low oil price pays off if you make money off of gasoline and other oil products anyway.01:43:22
But you pay less taxes to the countries where you extract oil.01:43:28
Profit.01:43:29
But such state of affairs didn't do for the government of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and such.01:43:37
They called up Venezuela, set up a hookah and went01:43:42
"Guys, we have a matter to discuss.01:43:45
They're extracting oil and making money.01:43:47
We're making too, but we want more.01:43:50
Any ideas?"01:43:51
They figured out that their territories account for 65% of the world's oil deposits.01:44:00
For comparison, Russia has only like 5% of the world's oil.01:44:04
So the guys decided01:44:05
to unite under the motto of "Life's no fun if the homies can't have none"01:44:10
and make a statement by raising the oil prices.01:44:13
So you either comply or bugger off.01:44:16
To make our point we've parked a van full of AK's over there.01:44:20
This was the birth of OPEC.01:44:22
Which means Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.01:44:26
Originally their only members were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Venezuela.01:44:32
Then they were joined by United Arabian Emirates,01:44:36
which is a country of its own.01:44:37
Algeria, Qatar and Indonesia which account to almost 75% of all oil in the world.01:44:45
When OPEC made their statement about the only way things were going to be from that point,01:44:50
USA and Europe had no other choice but comply.01:44:53
So they recognized OPEC as a legitimate organization to reckon with.01:44:58
This happened in 1960.01:45:00
Over the next few years OPEC not only took over the control of oil prices,01:45:06
they also started making decisions on the list of countries and the volumes of their export.01:45:12
They considered it their leverage.01:45:14
But if you look at the oil price chart01:45:17
you can see that nothing changed much in the sixties.01:45:21
Yes, the prices jumped a dollar up a dollar down, but nothing of substance.01:45:26
But in 1973 the chart skyrockets.01:45:29
Here's why.01:45:30
Seventy three was the year when Arab-Israeli conflict began.01:45:34
They've been constantly killing and raping each other, so nothing new.01:45:39
But after the two world wars01:45:41
the whole world was so shocked by the things they've done,01:45:44
that they decided not to let anything like that happen ever again.01:45:47
So all the major countries sat down and created the UN.01:45:50
The United Nations.01:45:52
The UN is kind of a shitshow that fights all the evils in this world.01:45:58
If something happens in the world and the UN considers it unfair or dangerous,01:46:03
they are quick to interfere and make some noise.01:46:06
When the conflict breaks out, not only the UN and Europe go like:01:46:11
"Arabs are wrong here.01:46:13
We've done the math and decided that jews are the good guys.01:46:15
Go go Jews, as they say."01:46:17
But also the US started to supply the Israel with guns under the guise of humanitarian aid.01:46:22
Sheiks saw all that and went like:01:46:26
Ey, Salaam alaikum my dear brothers.01:46:29
Making kebabs from the israelis is a long time tradition01:46:32
that just can not be broken!01:46:35
If you're so smart01:46:37
we'll restrict the oil export.01:46:40
Off you go from the hookah place.01:46:46
Is this gas?01:46:48
While Europe and the US were like01:46:51
So they wage the war,01:46:53
but we're the ones to blame?01:46:56
We can't do anything about it.01:46:59
But I still feel some funny taste in my mouth.01:47:02
Yup. Oh. Tastes like d-01:47:06
The real panic began.01:47:09
All the factories, power plants and developed nation economies as a whole were fueled solely by oil.01:47:15
And when you understand that the export of the only resource that sustains your system is restricted,01:47:21
what do you do?01:47:22
Right. You buy as much as possible beforehand to postpone the economic collapse.01:47:28
And as we all know,01:47:29
when people start panicking and buying up some product, what happens?01:47:33
The prices skyrocket.01:47:34
And the sheikhs were like "Homie, bring another hookah, now we can afford it."01:47:39
As if it wasn't enough that the countries rushed to buy up any oil they could get their hands on,01:47:44
the US and Europe were hit by a wave of extremely ridiculous restrictions.01:47:50
Britain, for example, closed down the airports,01:47:53
prohibited driving a car on holidays and weekends,01:47:56
and the prime minister asked the citizens to only turn the heater01:48:00
on in one of the bedrooms instead of the whole house.01:48:03
Germany and Italy had a drastic increase in bycicle prices.01:48:08
And due to defficit, there formed a whole black market of bikes in Italy.01:48:13
When the could have made more money on bicycles than on cocaine,01:48:16
mafia gladly accept the job to spread this sinful trade.01:48:21
In Netherland you could have been put to jail if you exceeded the energy limit per room.01:48:28
While people in France were fined if temperature in their house exceeded twenty degrees celcium.01:48:33
The US didn't suffer such measures,01:48:35
20% of their gas stations were just completely out of oil.01:48:38
And if your license plate ended on an even number01:48:41
you could have only fueled your car on the even days of the months.01:48:44
And the otehrs on uneven ones.01:48:46
But the funniest thing was that01:48:48
OPEC countries only lowered their exports by 7%.01:48:53
The oil was exported same as it ever was,01:48:55
everyone was just scared shitless.01:48:57
And the whole world crisis was caused simply by empty threats.01:49:01
Words of mouth.01:49:03
A group of ballsy people said: "We won't give you the oil,"01:49:07
and everyone started running around in panic.01:49:09
The 1973 oil crisis01:49:12
was the first time in history when everyone realized that to influence the nations01:49:19
and make half of the world do whatever you want01:49:23
you didn't need the rockets01:49:24
or the whole army of fanatics,01:49:26
you don't even need to get up from your chair.01:49:29
You just need to own the resources01:49:31
and have balls massive enough to use them.01:49:35
And starting from the year 1973,01:49:38
oil went from just some black liquid to something that could bring you to power.01:49:45
Oil and all its products became a very serious a lever of political pressure.01:49:51
which the whole world had to reckon with.01:50:06
Whatever people say, there's no such thing as absolute freedom.01:50:12
Both on a personal level and among nations.01:50:16
Of course, everybody strives tomaximal freedom01:50:19
so that they stay independent and dictate their own rules, but no.01:50:24
Europe doesn't have its own oil.01:50:28
And in any case they depend01:50:30
on OPEC and gas suppliers like Russia01:50:33
no matter how progressive and developed they are.01:50:37
And the crisis of seventy three01:50:39
illustrated it quite well.01:50:41
And what conclusion is to be made01:50:43
when you face such things as export restrictions01:50:47
and a nation-wide panic.01:50:48
That you need look for alternative energy sources,01:50:51
of course, but it seemed to me that01:50:55
such dry pragmatism is not enough01:50:57
for everyone to suddenly become concerned about alternative energy sources01:51:01
and ecology.01:51:02
What does ecology have to do with it?01:51:04
Back then no one give ecology a thought, but now ecology is the main argument01:51:09
for giving up hydrocarbons.01:51:11
The fact that Europe realized its dependence is okay.01:51:15
We'll need this fact later.01:51:17
But how come everyone started caring about the environment01:51:21
and the fact that the car is the main enemy of fresh air.01:51:26
It all started as usual.01:51:28
With one dedicated geek.01:51:45
Chapter 6. One-Man Army01:51:50
In the fifties, during the expansion of American oil companies in the Middle East,01:51:56
there was one geek in one of the US laboratories01:51:59
who poked around in a meteor.01:52:00
An actual scientist who had nothing in his life but science.01:52:04
And only thought about science as well.01:52:07
His name was Clair Patterson.01:52:09
One of the most talented geophysicists of the 20th century.01:52:14
By the year 1953, he was already a famous scientist, since he was one of the01:52:19
the creators of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan.01:52:22
When he saw what his warfare research had resulted in,01:52:27
he decided that he will never work in this sphere again.01:52:30
And started doing peaceful stuff, particularly01:52:34
he went to find out how old the Earth was.01:52:37
In the middle of the 20th century, no one knew for sure how old the Earth was as a planet.01:52:42
But Patterson had an idea of how to find this out, and that's why he needed the mass spectral analysis.01:52:48
If you are wondering why I’m telling you all this and what is it, don’t worry, I’ll explain myself.01:52:53
Just imagine.01:52:55
You're scientist, someone comes to you bringing a stone with them and says:01:53:00
"Tell me what it is, what is it made of and how many grams of each element there are?"01:53:07
What will you do?01:53:08
Aside from being shocked.01:53:09
But you still have to find of what is this stone made of and in what proportions.01:53:14
The reason to find out what is this rock made of should be clear.01:53:19
For example, it helps looking for mineral deposits.01:53:22
Or just for fun.01:53:24
Why not?01:53:25
People do that sometimes. And if in the past people knew jack shit01:53:29
about finding out what anything was made of,01:53:31
now you can just put the rock in a special device that will tell you everything.01:53:36
On what principles do devices like this work?01:53:39
You take the ion canon,01:53:40
bombard the object with ions and then look where they hit.01:53:45
And depending on the material the object is made of01:53:48
the ion trajectory will differ.01:53:50
Remember shit they told you at school about each molecule beind comprised of atoms01:53:54
which can be negative and positive and all that?01:53:56
Well, every material01:53:57
has its own molecular magnetic field01:54:00
and knowing how the magnetic fields of each element deviate the ion trajectory01:54:06
you can analyze chemical makeup of any object.01:54:09
Some scientists might get butthurt from an explaination like that01:54:14
but I deliberately simplify stuff since we don't need to go into details.01:54:20
What's important to know is that Patterson did such things.01:54:23
Patterson believed that meteors were the leftower materials from the times solar system had formed.01:54:30
The big bang happened01:54:32
and this crap has been drifting through cosmos since then.01:54:36
And if you calculate the meteors age, you can find the age of the Earth.01:54:41
Since they should be around the same age.01:54:43
Went to the same school and all that. And the age of a meteor01:54:47
can be derived from its uranium content.01:54:49
Over time, uranium breaks down into lead.01:54:54
And that is the word we are looking for.01:54:56
If you find the ratio of uranium to lead in an object,01:55:01
you can calculate its age through a special equation.01:55:05
As soon as Patterson realised that it can be used to calculate the age of the Earth,01:55:09
he immediately went to the nearest meteor store to get a meteorite.01:55:12
He brought it to his laboratory and playing with it.01:55:15
The first thing he had to do01:55:18
was getting a clean meteorite sample01:55:20
because in the time it took for the meteor to travel to Earth, then lie around in some field01:55:24
and get transported to the laboratory, a bunch of shit could have stuck to it.01:55:29
And obviously, it was important to clea that shit off.01:55:31
to increase the test's accuracy.01:55:33
But during the first test Clair realized01:55:37
that there's just too much lead.01:55:39
The results were off the scale.01:55:41
And he was like: "Well, the lead is probably left from the last experiments.01:55:45
I better clean the laboratory."01:55:47
He cleaned the walls01:55:48
wiped all the equipment, washed all the cans and flasks with sterile water01:55:54
then ran the test again with zero results.01:55:57
Lead everywhere.01:55:58
Lead literally oozed from every crack.01:56:01
It was everywhere - the skin, the clothes, even the tap water.01:56:05
And at that moment Clair realized that it was some weird shit.01:56:09
He desinfected the whole laboratory with chemical solution,01:56:13
installed a pneumatic pump in the vent system01:56:15
covered everything with polythelene01:56:17
and worked in a mask and a labcoat all wrapped around with tape.01:56:21
But the lead contents were still too high.01:56:24
Which prevented him from conducting the experiment.01:56:27
No matter what he did and no matter how hard he tried01:56:31
he could not achieve sterility.01:56:32
Needless to say, no one really worked on the lab sterility in the fifties.01:56:38
Just put on your gloves and you're good to go.01:56:40
That's why everyone was giving Patterson a weird look01:56:44
when he was wrapping his room and his clothes in trash bags.01:56:48
But Patterson was a stubborn guy and if you methodically hammer01:56:51
the nail long enough you will eventually succeed.01:56:57
It took him five years to build his first sterile laboratory01:57:02
And get a sterile meteor sample after all.01:57:07
Completely free of impurities stuck to it.01:57:09
Then he spent three more years building a new lab01:57:13
to conduct the spectral analysis experiments01:57:15
since the equipment didn't fit in the last one.01:57:20
In ninety fifty six, after eight years of room cleaning01:57:23
and meteor studying,01:57:25
he completes his research01:57:27
and finds out that the Earth is 4,5 billion years old.01:57:30
Rounds of applause recognition and awards.01:57:33
But Patterson didn't care much.01:57:35
He wanted to understand what was the deal with lead and why it was everywhere.01:57:40
Just so you know,01:57:42
here's what went on in his lab.01:57:44
First, he prohibited wearing regular clothes in its vicinity.01:57:48
all the assistants had to wear special suits just like he did.01:57:52
Second, the building's ventilation system was redesigned in such way that it became completely airtight.01:58:00
At the same time he installed special aerodynamic equipment01:58:03
that supplied air purified from adulderants.01:58:06
Third, all the wiring in the laboratory was replaced.01:58:09
because it had lead solder at the time.01:58:12
And fourth, all the surfaces in the room were washed with special chemical solutions several times a day.01:58:19
Patterson let nobody in, saying that if someone comes from the street and simply walks into the room,01:58:25
they would bring so much lead on their hair01:58:28
that they would have had to clean the room for days.01:58:31
And Clair didn't know why that happened.01:58:34
He didn't understand whether it was okay or not.01:58:38
Was lead always around in such quantities and we just noticed it because we have spectral equipment01:58:45
or is it some new planetary process?01:58:48
Needless to say, any research costs money.01:58:52
Quite a substantial sum.01:58:53
And Patterson naturally had none.01:58:55
For example, the budget01:58:56
for his meteor studies were given by the Atomic Energy Comission01:59:01
when he told them that his research would help with the creation of uranium fuel.01:59:06
Which obviously was total bullshit, and Patterson admitted it later.01:59:10
But he wasn't ashame of such methods of sponsorship.01:59:13
Did he study uranium? He did.01:59:15
Does uranium fuel have uranium in it?01:59:16
It does. Here, simple as that.01:59:19
And so he thought that the whole lead thing can be tested in one peculiar way.01:59:26
He could send an expedition to the ocean to collect samples from different depths and ocean layers01:59:30
and compare their lead contents.01:59:33
And if the content of lead is high everywhere01:59:37
he could relax01:59:38
since it's all natural.01:59:40
So he came to the oil industry representatives and said that01:59:43
his research01:59:44
might help finding new oil fields in the ocean.01:59:50
Like, they would find traces of oil in some oceanic layers01:59:52
and that spot would be great for an oil rig.01:59:55
The guys happily gave him 200,000 dollars and Patterson went to the expedition.02:00:00
The expedition went all the way from the Pacific ocean to the Sargasso Sea.02:00:05
On the way they collected samples from all the water banks they passed.02:00:08
When they returned, he once again wrapped himself in a plastic bag02:00:12
and starts his research.02:00:14
And that's when his ass hair start tingling.02:00:17
On average, the samples collected at the surface had lead contents02:00:21
about twenty times higher than the deep sea ones.02:00:24
Which means that lead appeared recently.02:00:28
He started studying volcanic eruptions and similar natural disasters02:00:32
to at least find some logic02:00:35
to the increase in lead contents over the past hundred years.02:00:39
There was no logic. All the disasters were regional.02:00:42
But there were equal amounts of lead everywhere.02:00:45
And completely by chance02:00:46
in his research he stumbles upon some oil industry report02:00:50
on some successful and huge volume productions of leaded gasoline.02:00:56
At this moment he put the pieces together.02:00:59
Tetraethyl lead caused all this.02:01:02
Without asking anyone's permission he wrote a report on his meteor and ocean studies02:01:08
where he says that the lead is everywhere02:01:10
and how all this is clearly the humans' fault.02:01:13
The oil industry's fault, to be exact.02:01:15
He published it in scientific newspapers. The Petroleum Institute starts seeing red.02:01:21
Not only Patterson didn’t warn anyone and didn’t give his report for review,02:01:26
they were also shat on by their own sponsee.02:01:30
They did give him the ocean research funds after all.02:01:33
Obviously, the funding was immediately cut off.02:01:36
And the Institute of Petroleum people started pushing02:01:38
the management of the university Patterson was working at.02:01:42
"You should immediately stop his nonesense", they said.02:01:46
But it was too late.02:01:48
The important thing had already happened.02:01:50
The scientific community started to discuss the article and everyone realized that it was a real problem.02:01:56
Then the oilmen realised02:01:58
that there's no use in cutting funding.02:02:00
They tried another approach.02:02:04
They sent their lawyers and representatives to Patterson02:02:06
so that they could convince him to research something else.02:02:09
Like, "Look, mister,02:02:11
we have the money, we can fund it, anything you want.02:02:16
We can even get you a trainful of trash bags, just don't pick on us."02:02:21
But all the guys got was a lecture on the dangers of lead.02:02:25
They left with empty hands.02:02:26
The petroleum instutute didn't know what to do with this geek.02:02:30
He had no businesses,02:02:32
no lucrative patents,02:02:34
so there were no chips to bargain with him.02:02:37
He was just a stubborn geologist.02:02:39
After the whole oil industry came crashing down on Patterson,02:02:43
he realized that there's no way back.02:02:44
So he published another article where he attacked the generally accepted norms02:02:49
for the lead contents in human body.02:02:53
Specifically he hit Robert Kehoe02:02:56
who set the 80 milligram norm.02:02:58
Robert Kehoe is the dude who once told health association that02:03:02
if they didn't have the proof of TEL being dangerous,02:03:05
they'd better fuck off.02:03:07
And the guy who was also responsible for safety regulations on Ethyl factories.02:03:11
I've already told you that.02:03:12
factories I told you02:03:13
Kehoe, by that point, lets list it,02:03:16
was the founder and the head of the02:03:18
Environmental Health department02:03:20
at the University of California.02:03:23
Chairman of the American Industrial Hygiene Association Commission02:03:27
President of the American Academy of Occupational Medicine02:03:31
Vice Chairman of the Board of industrial healthcare02:03:35
And the director of the medical department at the Ethyl plant as a part-time gig.02:03:39
Obviously,02:03:41
such a respectable person in the scientific community02:03:44
held some lab scientist in as much regard as dirt on his shoe.02:03:48
Here is his quote02:03:50
"Conclusions regarding the natural02:03:52
lead content in the human body02:03:55
are just naive, I believe.02:03:58
It's a nice example of how wrong can a person be in his biological postulates02:04:03
and conclusions when he enters the field in which he is so ignorant02:04:08
that he has no idea about the true depth of his ignorance.02:04:13
Which is the reason for his recklesness in his radical conclusions.02:04:17
Obviously, Kehoe was supported02:04:19
by all the well-known toxicologists of that time.02:04:21
"Let's hope that this article will be the first02:04:25
and the last one in the science fiction genre.02:04:28
said toxicologist Herbert Stockenger,02:04:30
one of the most famous02:04:32
figures of that period.02:04:33
A small nuance was that02:04:35
all the people who criticized Patterson02:04:38
either worked for the Petroleum Institute directly02:04:42
or were simply funded by the oilmen.02:04:44
Such a tiny little nuance.02:04:47
And when all the behemoths of the scientific community02:04:50
although corrupt,02:04:52
start saying that your articles are just madman's scribbles02:04:56
that don't even deserve all the attention,02:04:59
your chances to win are slim.02:05:02
You can be right all you want,02:05:05
if your ideas won't be able to reach the people,02:05:09
there will be no result.02:05:10
No matter how stubborn you are,02:05:13
if no one listens to you, you will accomplish nothing.02:05:17
And such was the situation Patterson faced.02:05:20
He was one hundred percent sure he was right.02:05:23
But ignored by everyone.02:05:25
Luckily, if Patterson learned anything02:05:27
while working on02:05:29
the sterility of his lab,02:05:30
was the fact that in any case there will be a result sooner or later.02:05:35
If you work methodically and under no circumstances give up.02:05:59
Everyone loves the stories of lone wolf heroes02:06:03
whose sheer stubborness could tear down any walls02:06:07
break any rules02:06:08
and change this world. But in real life02:06:11
there are no lone wolves. There's society. And people in it. And society is a bitch.02:06:17
Cause at a certain period it's only ready to accept02:06:20
a certain set ideas02:06:22
If Patterson, for example, started caring about the environment in the forties,02:06:26
nobody would have taken him seriously,02:06:28
everyone had things to worry about.02:06:30
They were having their own fun.02:06:32
Therefore, to understand why certain ideas were only heard in a specific period of time02:06:38
you need to understand the context of this period and the things people had on their minds,02:06:42
what worried them and what they discussed behind closed curtains.02:06:45
Luckily, lead wasn't the only problem of the industry02:06:49
that the scientists and the general public worried about.02:07:03
Chapter 7. Father of the Environmentalism02:07:09
In 1948 in a small town02:07:12
called Donora and located in Pennsylvania,02:07:15
there was an occurance that went down in history as the Donora smog.02:07:20
For four days from twenty seventh to thirty first of october02:07:23
the town was entangled by dense smog. One would think, not a big deal, fog is a natural thing.02:07:28
But the very first day it came clear that something was wrong.02:07:32
Local hospitals started to recieve02:07:33
a lot of calls from people02:07:35
complaining about cough and asthma attacks.02:07:38
And by evening, the whole city was panicking, since everyone was struggling to breathe.02:07:43
The ones who had an opportunity urgently gathered02:07:46
all relatives and fled the town.02:07:48
The rest were left to suffocate in their homes,02:07:51
the whole town looked dead. Empty streets,02:07:54
cafes and shops02:07:55
and only ambulances driving around trying to save at least somebody.02:08:00
This hel only ended because02:08:02
october thirty first on Sunday it started raining.02:08:06
The smog disappeared and the cause was the zinc production plant02:08:11
which was located nearby.02:08:12
There occured the leakage of gaseous fluorine which killed all vegetation02:08:16
on site and also strangled the town.02:08:19
Out of 14,000 residents, 6,000 got sick and 70 people died.02:08:25
December 4, 1952.02:08:28
London. The city is suddenly hit by anticyclone which makes the weather extremely cold and calm,02:08:34
People are trying to keep warm by running their ovens double-time.02:08:38
And back then most houses wew heated by coal.02:08:41
And when coal burns it emits sulfur02:08:44
especially if the coal is low quality.02:08:47
And the British had just that.02:08:49
The city was quickly covered in fog, but no one bats an eye.02:08:55
I mean, it's London.02:08:57
But the fact that 4,000 people died in two days,02:09:02
and in four days the death toll increased to 13,00002:09:05
was hard to ignore.02:09:07
And in hospitals and at home there were 25,000 more lying sick in bed.02:09:12
And it all ended thanks to rain that washed away all the sulfur in the air.02:09:18
It seems this town needs a new superhero.02:09:24
And that kind of crap happened all around the globe.02:09:26
Absolutely everywhere close to the large factories, people in the vicinity02:09:30
complained about their health deteriorating.02:09:32
They had lung problems and died prematurely.02:09:36
Medics and climatologists02:09:38
from all the developed countries started researching smog02:09:41
which was a pretty common phenomenon in big cities.02:09:45
One of those researchers, a Frenchman named Eugene Houdry calculated02:09:49
that from 1915 to 1950 the consumption of gasoline, coal and oil02:09:54
had increased by 25 times and exactly by 25 times02:09:58
had increased the incidence of lung cancer among city residents.02:10:01
And such studies were held out more often each day.02:10:06
All this leads to the fact that the governments02:10:09
of developed countries understand that they need to deal with that problem.02:10:13
Since the US at that time had the most developed industry, they had higher incedence than the others.02:10:20
And since the fifties were the heyday of TV and radio broadcasting, the whole country was aware02:10:26
That some weird shit is constantly happening near the manufactories.02:10:29
Before that, if something like this happened to Donora, Pennsylvania,02:10:33
the only ones to know it would have been only the residents of Donora, Pennsylvania.02:10:38
Even people from the nearest town wouldn't have known.02:10:40
But now any screw up would have been made public.02:10:44
Naturally, everyone worried about this02:10:46
and the most important thing was that people didn't feel protected by the state.02:10:50
And unhappy people02:10:52
are the people who vote opposition.02:10:54
And something needed to be done.02:10:56
The government held a gathering in 1955, scratched their heads02:10:59
and gave birth to the air pollution control act that allowed02:11:03
scientists to conduct research on factories,02:11:05
inform the population about possible dangers, find the pollution causes02:11:11
and figure out the way to control it. The law didn't introduce any emission regulations.02:11:16
The only thing it was good for was funding scientists' research,02:11:20
so they slowly started accumulating reliable data.02:11:23
Also it calmed people down. Everything's fine, we're dealing with it, nothing to worry about.02:11:28
The new wave of environmental concerns was fueled by this book.02:11:32
Silent spring, written in 1963.02:11:36
Eight years after the air pollution control act.02:11:40
This book was published by an activist02:11:42
and biologist Rachel Clarkson, she studied how plants, animals and humans were affect by pesticides02:11:48
that were quite actively used by most farmers.02:11:52
Pesticides are chemicals that are sprayed over the fields to kill rodents, insects and weeds.02:11:58
So that they wouldn't destroy the crops.02:12:01
And the result of her study was quite a logical conclusion.02:12:04
Substances that kill insects rodents and small birds are not very good for human health02:12:12
The government had no control over the agricultural industry02:12:16
as well as manufacturers, so farmers were free to water their fields with whatever they wanted.02:12:21
In her book Rachel02:12:22
focused on how chemicals02:12:24
affect the child's body02:12:27
They affect organ development,02:12:29
occurrence of chronic diseases, neural system damage and so on.02:12:33
And if you want to hook as many people as possible,02:12:37
you won't find a trigger better02:12:38
than health or the future of the children.02:12:41
And this book covered both subjects.02:12:44
The book quickly swept the nation02:12:47
and caused a storm of unrest no one expected.02:12:50
People started going out to the streets and arranging demonstrations with slogans like02:12:55
"Stop poisoning our children. "02:12:57
Causing general unrest.02:12:59
Plus by this time,02:13:01
the scientists who studied air near the factories02:13:04
had collected a rather hefty amount of data.02:13:07
The industry and the cars emit harmful substances and solid particles sulfur, lead,02:13:15
nitrogen and carbon. And since02:13:17
the country's industry was doing well,02:13:20
and there were 83 million cars on the roads back then,02:13:25
emissions were substantial.02:13:26
For example, now there are around 60 million cars in Russia.02:13:30
And there were 20 million more in the US 60 years ago.02:13:34
And the US is half the sieze of Russia.02:13:37
In addition to that, we should also consider the fact that in 196302:13:42
John Kennedy was killed.02:13:43
The favorite president of American citizens.02:13:45
And in the country faced a lot of internal problems,02:13:48
while the atmosphere of total distrust and discontent thickened in the air.02:13:53
1965 is the year the US join the Vietnam war02:13:56
Which was condemned by the whole younger generation. And 1967 was the year Detroit rioted02:14:02
and the black population tore down half of the city so they had to send tanks in.02:14:08
Fun times those were.02:14:10
Politicians understood that control over society was slipping through their fingers02:14:15
and no one knew where to start.02:14:16
The social problems02:14:18
or the racial conflict or the environment or the war.02:14:21
Who knows.02:14:22
Everything is on fire and trust in the government, just as electoral votes,02:14:28
just vanished, and the power is a thing that can't just dissolve into thin air.02:14:32
If someone loses it, someone else will take it02:14:35
if he is smart enough to turn things into his favor.02:14:39
Meet Edmund Muskie one of the first environmentalist politicians in the US02:14:45
And the entire world.02:14:47
he was a member of the Democratic Party in Maine and Maine is a countryside paradise in the north of the US famous for its lakes,02:14:57
forests and rocky coasts. Like Russian Karelia.02:15:02
Though the state of Maine is two times smaller in area and two times bigger in population.02:15:06
There are also about 5,000 rivers, lakes and ponds,02:15:10
and most people used to earn a living from cattle breeding and fishing.02:15:15
Muskie gained popularity in his state because he accusedL.Word02:15:19
all the manufacturers of making the nature look like shit with their waste.02:15:23
Like, "These factories are just standing there pouring their waste into our clean rivers. "02:15:28
While the government turns a blind eye and does nothing.02:15:31
As time went, more people shared02:15:34
the position of a young politician, he traveled02:15:37
throughout the region, and spoke in all the towns in front of the people02:15:40
and in every speech he urged people to wake up and look around.02:15:45
And see how factories pollute our rivers, how refineries fill the air with poison, how they cut down the forest.02:15:53
At such rates they will soon be living on a toxic dump of production waste.02:15:59
Eventually Muskie became the governor of the state in January 1955.02:16:03
And the first thing he did was fulfilling his campaign promises.02:16:08
He gathered a team of like-minded people from the government who shared his point of view02:16:13
and started to push the idea of creating the Maine Department of Conservation,02:16:20
which would have jurisdiction over forestry,02:16:23
sea and shore fisheries, mineral, water, and other natural resources.02:16:28
It took a while, but what's important is that it worked.02:16:33
And Muskie was alowed to create a comeetee.02:16:35
In for four years Muskie02:16:38
developed the legislation that established emission and waste standards for Maine factories and plants.02:16:45
And instructed the committee to oversee the whole thing.02:16:48
Since this was the very first version of that kind of law,02:16:52
it looked something among the lines of:02:16:55
"Okay, guys, you're making a bunch of shit02:16:58
At least have some dignity not to spill the waste directly into the lake.02:17:03
Take it to the dump, or at least around the corner. Be my bros."02:17:07
While non-compliance with the standards implied fines which were happily taken by the commitee.02:17:14
Muskie redirected these funds to schools and universities02:17:18
By the late 60s Muskie became a notable politician02:17:21
on a national level.02:17:22
Who also aimed for the Senate.02:17:24
The senate is the central governing body in the US02:17:27
similar to federation council in Russia.02:17:29
There are nuances, but the point is the same.02:17:32
Thanks to the fact that Muskie continued to meet with the people and didn't hesitate02:17:37
to go into polemics he had a lot of fans.02:17:39
And he finally managed to get into the Senate02:17:42
And that is when Patterson notices him who fought with02:17:45
the entire scientific community with his research on lead.02:17:49
Patterson, who was being destroyed by well-respected scientists02:17:55
stopped caring about scientific journals and just started sending out the results02:17:58
of his research directly to the senate.02:18:01
And naturally, the first to recieve it was Muskie.02:18:04
When the results touched his deck02:18:07
Edmund clung into them like a lifebelt.02:18:10
Patterson's studies showed that the industry was extremely harmful for the environment and human health.02:18:17
And he couldn't miss such an opportunity.02:18:20
Since Muskie had already been a notable political figure,02:18:23
he succeeded in pushing the government into funding the Water and Air Protection Commitee.02:18:30
and started preparing his own laws on that regard.02:18:33
His logic was unchanged since the state level.02:18:35
You see, we introduce emission norms and penalties for non-compliance,02:18:40
which we will then spend on education.02:18:43
We helped the environment,02:18:44
calmed people down and spent money on education.02:18:48
which made people even happier,02:18:49
here are our brownie points.02:18:51
Right here.02:18:53
The perfect solution.02:18:55
And in 1963 the world's first law on air pollution appears.02:19:01
Which is effective nation-wide.02:19:03
It applied both to productions and the cars.02:19:07
Speaking about cars, according to this law, the amount of nitrogen and carbon dioxide02:19:11
produced by the car had to be reduced by 85%.02:19:15
How about that?02:19:17
Roughly speaking, and average car02:19:20
emitted 87 grams of carbon dioxide per mile, and they asked 13.02:19:26
How? Nobody knows.02:19:28
The idea of reducing the amount of emissions tenfold sounded ridiculous02:19:33
but fortunately car companies had a solution02:19:36
to comply with the norm without any risks.02:19:39
This solution was a catalyst.02:19:41
By this time these had already been installed on factories02:19:45
which were coughing up just too much smoke.02:19:48
And in theory they could fit into a car02:19:52
A catalyst is an iron can02:19:54
with metal cells inside02:19:56
which contained special metals which boost chemical reactions02:20:00
In a nutshell,02:20:01
bad air comes in the jar02:20:05
magic happens02:20:06
and the cleaner air comes out.02:20:09
That is all we need to know.02:20:11
I don't want to bombard you with chemistry.02:20:13
No need.02:20:14
Just remember that the catalyst neutralizes any crap the car exhausts.02:20:19
Not completely but substantially.02:20:21
The problem is that the catalyst was incompatible with leaded gasoline.02:20:25
Lead quickly clogged all the cells and catalysts simply stopped working02:20:30
And car companies went like02:20:32
We're okay with that,02:20:34
It's easy as pie to put catalyst in a car.02:20:37
It just wouldn't work.02:20:39
It's not our problem, go talk to the oilmen.02:20:42
And the oilmen went like.02:20:45
Since the lead was the first thing to deal with,02:20:48
by Muskie and Patterson's initiative, in 196302:20:51
the health care institute held the meeting02:20:54
on the dangers of lead gasoline.02:20:56
Aside from Patterson,02:20:57
this meeting was attended by a number of doctors and scientists02:21:01
who also had the study results on their hands02:21:04
stating that the norm of 80 milligrams of lead per 100 milliliters of blood is bad for human health.02:21:11
Kehoe, the devil's advocate who had been defending lead this whole time,02:21:15
came to the meeting and started playing his old records like: "You have no proof that lead is dangerous,02:21:20
go screw yourselves, here are our lawyers, by the way."02:21:24
But for the first time in his life he was publicly told02:21:28
"Hello? Don't you understand?02:21:31
We have the research."02:21:33
In fact it was the first meeting held by officials02:21:37
that didn't end with them saying led was okay and safe to use.02:21:43
On the other hand, they didn't take any measures either.02:21:47
Just bullied Kehoe and went home.02:21:49
But Muskie finally decided that he will not get off of leaded gasoline companies' backs.02:21:55
In a year a meeting of the committee on airwater pollution was held,02:21:59
where Muskie participated. He decided to arrange a public cross-poll02:22:03
for Patterson02:22:04
and Kehoe here's the official transcript.02:22:08
Are you out of your fucking minds, you fucking assholes?02:22:11
What the fuck have you done?02:22:14
So your conclusion is that there was no increase in the lead contents in the athmosphere?02:22:17
Oh, fuck off before I put your mic into your ass!02:22:21
There is no evidence that in this period there occurred any changes at all.02:22:28
Then they brought Patterson who fiercely smashed the health care service and Kehoe to pieces.02:22:35
He showed that tons of lead got in the athmosphere with exhaust fumes,02:22:40
and since it killed people slowly no one notices.02:22:44
He also argued that02:22:46
the health service is obviously conspiring with the oil industry02:22:50
because there could be no other reason02:22:53
for leaded gasoline still not being banned.02:22:56
TEL is a crime that is being committed02:22:59
against our citizens, that was his main idea.02:23:03
Patterson was finally heard.02:23:04
This meeting was a turning point in the leaded gasoline issue.02:23:09
Muskie finally leaves to prepare the legislative framework for the restriction of additives that can be mixed into fuel02:23:16
and some time later02:23:17
the Department of Conservation comes out with a proposal.02:23:22
Not a ban but a proposal to reduce the lead contents by 60%.02:23:27
The industry goes berserk.02:23:29
They considered this proposal to be extremely radical.02:23:32
But Patterson also goes berserk, because he considered it to be too light.02:23:37
Patterson, oozing with rage,02:23:39
seeking for more arguments against lead02:23:42
begins to study the bones of ancient people02:23:45
and here's what he gets from different samples.02:23:48
First he took some Peruvian tooth02:23:50
that was 4,500 years old02:23:53
and calculated that the amount of lead in total mass of tooth's calcium was02:24:01
That's the number, believe it or not.02:24:03
Then he took the bone of some Egyptian,02:24:06
who lived 2,200 years ago,02:24:12
How about that?02:24:14
Basically, 12,5 times more than in the Peruvian tooth.02:24:19
And while testing the skeleton of a modern human,02:24:25
of lead in the total mass of calcium. Think about that as well.02:24:29
Which means that the human body from the 1970s had 50 times more lead than the body of the Egyptian02:24:36
and 600 times more than the body of the Peruvian.02:24:40
After this research the scientific community went like:02:24:45
"Well, that's some heavy stuff. Can't argue with that one."02:24:48
While the industry defended itself with the fact that lead gasoline is the economy's blood.02:24:53
Plus all of its production factories which there were a ton of, created workplaces and generated tax money,02:24:59
and healthcare people knew that while the economic truth is on the side of manufactories,02:25:05
people are ready to breathe dirty air if they have dirty money in their pockets.02:25:10
While clean air and empty stomach is something nobody wants.02:25:15
Same with smoking.02:25:17
Everyone knows it's bad, but they still smoke cause it feels good.02:25:21
Plus, giving up lead02:25:23
means redesigning all the factories02:25:27
cutting back the current staff,02:25:29
recruiting and training the new workers, development of new technologies and it's all expensive.02:25:35
Plus the oilmen were supported by the car companies,02:25:38
since installing precious metal catalyst in all the cars02:25:40
all cars would have been too expensive for the consumer.02:25:43
And if services and commitees were still hesitating, Muskie was02:25:48
unstoppable, he pressured the oilmen02:25:51
and car companies from two sides.02:25:54
He limited the use of additives02:25:56
and set exhaust fumes norm.02:25:59
His new version of the law on air and water pollution was02:26:02
was his political bargaining chip,02:26:04
which he flamboyantly used in front of the public.02:26:08
By this time he had already gained such popularity that he was going to run for president.02:26:14
and in one of his campaign speeches he said,02:26:17
quote Detroit told the nation02:26:20
that Americans cannot live without cars.02:26:24
This law will tell Detroit that they have to design an automobile02:26:27
that Americans could coexist with.02:26:30
He lost the presidential campaign,02:26:32
but he still remained in one the top positions in the country02:26:35
and continued his methodical fight against lead and exhaust fumes02:26:39
In total, the war against leaded gasoline producers went on for almost twenty five years.02:26:45
The first meeting on lead hazard02:26:48
was held in 1965.02:26:50
And the document that completely prohibited the use of lead additives02:26:54
was signed only in 1990.02:26:57
And according to this document, only five years later02:26:59
by December 31, 1995,02:27:03
all gas stations in the US were supposed to stop selling leaded fuel at all.02:27:08
And car companies were obliged to install catalysts in all of their car models02:27:14
And main hero of this whole story and this victory was Clair Patterson02:27:18
Just a stubborn geologist02:27:21
who wanted to work for the good of people. At the end of his life02:27:24
he was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences of the US.02:27:28
He was also awarded with Tyler Prize,02:27:30
the most prestigious award in the field of environmental sciences.02:27:33
While all the measures he took to make his labs sterile,02:27:37
which were laughed at by his colleagues,02:27:40
have become standard procedures.02:27:42
Clair Patterson was born June 2, 1922,02:27:47
a year after Kettering had patented tetraethyl lead.02:27:51
Patterson was 25 days away from witnessing the complete ban of lead.02:27:56
He died December 5, 1995.02:27:59
For the second half of life02:28:01
until his last breath, he fought so that lead would forever go away02:28:06
from the air we breathe.02:28:09
Turned out, they've gone together. And the corporations02:28:13
that caused colossal environmental damage02:28:16
got away with it.02:28:17
They were just forced to stop making TEL.02:28:19
The only man who was publically lynched02:28:22
and blamed for everything was Thomas Midgley02:28:25
who invented tetraethyl lead.02:28:28
Even though his whole life Midgley was just a hired worker02:28:32
in contrast to Kettering, who received dividends from the patents and had Ethyl shares02:28:37
And so on.02:28:39
Midgley didn't make that much money off of TEL.02:28:42
didn't get to a high corporative position,02:28:45
he just received a fixed salary.02:28:48
But when the war on TEL started,02:28:50
he got all the hate from environmentalists02:28:52
and scientists.02:28:53
Although he warned Kettering and the corporation about the dangers of lead.02:28:58
And he didn't profit from it at all.02:29:01
Unlike the GM that made billions.02:29:04
Thanks to Ethyl GM surpassed Ford's profits02:29:08
mid-century.02:29:09
And giving up TEL would have been a disaster for their budget.02:29:14
Not Midgley but GM and Standard Oil lawyers02:29:18
promoted the use of TEL.02:29:19
Even when scientists had evidence of its danger.02:29:23
But no one cares. Midgley is still considered to be the one who caused great harm to our planet's ecology.02:29:31
While corporations got off scott free.02:29:34
We just produce stuff. We have nothing to do with it, Midgley was the inventor. What's your deal?02:29:39
In the last forty years02:29:41
starting from the eighties, a lot of research was conducted02:29:45
concerning the effect lead has on humans.02:29:48
Scientists have studied children who were born in the seventies and the eighties02:29:52
observed their lives and their development02:29:54
In broad terms,02:29:56
they was found out that the generation born and raised during the lead gasoline consumption peak,02:30:03
Has lowered IQ,02:30:04
is more irritable,02:30:06
less focused on completing tasks02:30:08
more difficult to train and so on.02:30:12
In twenty thirteen, a large study was completed which revealed02:30:15
a direct link between the contents of lead in blood02:30:20
with crime rates02:30:21
and the numbers of crimes these people commit.02:30:25
Criminals always had more lead in blood02:30:29
than law-abiding citizens.02:30:31
The scientists also linked it to the hell that was raised in Detroit02:30:35
in the eighties and nineties when the crime rates there were sky high02:30:39
and the city turned from a thriving industrial paradise02:30:43
to nasty ruins02:30:44
which were simply dangerous to live in.02:30:46
Residents of Detroit had the highest amount of lead in their blood02:30:51
compared to the entire country.02:30:53
When the TEL restrictions began,02:30:56
Lead levels started dropping.02:30:58
By 1994,02:31:01
even before the complete ban of lead gasoline,02:31:04
lead content in blood of Americans decreased by 78%02:31:08
compared to the 1970s.02:31:10
And today this number is ridiculously low.02:31:14
And TEL is one of the most dangerous poisons02:31:16
the industry gave us.02:31:18
It poisoned millions of people worldwide.02:31:22
Corporations and the economy got their billions.02:31:26
While people were getting sick.02:31:29
And for the fact that TEL is no longer a threat02:31:33
we should thank one stubborn scientist.02:31:36
whom no bureaucratic machine could harm.02:31:40
Whether it be corporation or the government.02:31:42
And even though Clair Patterson worked on the creation of the atomic bomb02:31:46
which ended thousands of lives,02:31:49
by the end of his work and his life02:31:51
he saved considerably more lives02:31:53
from slowly succumbing to the invisible poison.02:31:56
He reedemed his sins in the eyes of humanity.02:32:09
Chapter 8. All for One and One for All02:32:15
After Muskie started a full scale campaign in the US02:32:20
to fight for the conservation of nature.02:32:22
The whole world starts paying more attention to ecology.02:32:26
And keep a closer look to all the events somehow related to it.02:32:30
All that for a reason.02:32:32
The first significant event was the London smog of ninety fifty two which I already mentioned.02:32:40
About four years later in the fifty-sixth02:32:42
Japanese scientists found some new strange mental disorder among residents.02:32:49
Predominantly among children in the city of Minamata.02:32:52
The hospitals were full of children who moved sluggishly,02:32:56
had speech defects and suffered occasional seizures.02:33:00
First scientists thought that it was some new infection is since the number of cases02:33:04
increased exponentially.02:33:06
Then similar symptoms were found in cats who also had weirdly twitched02:33:12
with convulsions and were generally extremely weak.02:33:15
And when dead crows started ocassionally falling from the sky,02:33:20
even scientists went like02:33:24
Colleague, shouldn't the birds fly in the opposite direction?02:33:29
Must be the new species. Reverse birds.02:33:31
Let's place it in the endangered species list then.02:33:34
We wouldn't want it to die.02:33:37
Having studied all the victims, scientists found out that they all lived in the fishing villages02:33:43
on the coast of Minamata Bay.02:33:45
Cats too. And the main food in the fishing village is obviously fish.02:33:50
Which was also often found floating belly-up.02:33:54
Probably tired and getting a rest.02:33:56
And when they looked up the stream, they saw a Chissep chemical plant02:34:01
that poured the waste in the water and didn't worry one bit.02:34:05
The chemical analysis of water showed that water had02:34:09
everything in it but water.02:34:10
Lead, mercury,02:34:12
manganese, arsenic, selenium, thallium, and other elements.02:34:17
But the most harmful one for the health was mercury,02:34:20
and its levels were over-the-top.02:34:22
Official recognition of the Minamata disease happened only 12 years later,02:34:28
in 1968.02:34:30
And only then the authorities took care of the plant02:34:33
by reducing the pollution.02:34:35
Before that, plant management bribed the authorities,02:34:38
forcing people and fishermen to remain silent02:34:41
and shutting all mouths that wanted to argue with a fistful money.02:34:45
After pollution was recognised,02:34:47
its consequences had been neutralized for the next 30 years.02:34:50
By 2001,02:34:52
the plant's official victims list had 2,265 people.02:34:57
174 of whom died.02:35:00
In 1957 there occurred the first nuclear emergency in the USSR.02:35:08
It happened on the Mayak chemical plant02:35:10
in Chelyabinsk-forty not to be confused with Chelyabinsk,02:35:13
it's a whole different place.02:35:15
The modern name of this town is Ozyorsk, and to put it symply, a tank full of radioactive waste exploded there.02:35:22
The explosion was tens of tons in trinitrotoluene equivalent02:35:26
and covered the whole region with a radioactive cloud02:35:30
Its aftermath lasted for decades.02:35:33
and now the Eastern Ural Nature Reserve is located on the explosion site.02:35:38
It has a slight nuclear aftertaste.02:35:40
80,000 people were officially recognized as victims,02:35:44
these were people who lived in the vicinity02:35:46
as well as radiation liquidators.02:35:48
The only disasters bigger in nuclear contamination02:35:51
were the Chernobyl meltdown and02:35:53
and the Fukushima incident.02:35:56
In 1963 a landslide happened in the Italian Alps.02:36:01
In 45 seconds a local water reservoir was bombarded, according to estimations,02:36:06
with 200 to 300 million cubic meters of soil.02:36:09
Such speed and such volume of rock02:36:13
caused a ninety meters high wave,02:36:15
which was moving at the speed of twelve meters per second.02:36:19
In seven minutes, the wave completely destroyed five villages02:36:22
and caused serious damage to some settlement in the valley.02:36:26
Resulting in 2,500 to 3,000 deaths.02:36:31
Such events happened by dozens.02:36:33
In different corners of the world there happened either natural disasters,02:36:37
like landslides and earthquakes,02:36:39
or man-made disasters, explosions, chemical contaminations,02:36:42
general pollution.02:36:44
And most importantly, people were dying.02:36:47
And when people die somewhere it is always raises concerns02:36:51
and social unrest.02:36:53
When there was a demand someone who would dealt with environment on a global scale,02:37:00
Everyone looked at the UN.02:37:02
That's what they were made of.02:37:04
To prevent world conflicts, ensure world security and all that noise.02:37:10
And here we have a global problem.02:37:12
We breathe the same air.02:37:13
So it's logical for the UN to deal with that.02:37:16
Sound logic.02:37:17
The UN happily started creating the ground for the global environmental discussion.02:37:22
Though soon they faced a problem.02:37:24
Everyone told them to fuck off.02:37:26
That is evryone said "Good job.02:37:28
You're doing important work. Our respect.02:37:31
But you can manage without us."02:37:33
It is also important to note that the UN is sponsored by the member countries.02:37:37
It doesn't make any profit by itself.02:37:40
All the countries just donate to a common fund02:37:42
and that's how it works.02:37:44
And when the UN comes to you to talk,02:37:48
this means that after a row of formalities02:37:50
and hail Marys they will just ask you for money.02:37:54
Just like a teacher who comes to the parenting board meeting.02:37:57
in the end, everything will eventually lead to the fact that the school needs new curtains.02:38:02
Same shit but on the national level.02:38:06
And the seventies were the time where people couldn't have cared less about the UN and their nonsense.02:38:12
The cold war,02:38:14
the oil crisis of seventy three I mentioned,02:38:17
the US Vietnam war intervention,02:38:19
islamists uprising in Syria.02:38:21
the Watergate scandal,02:38:23
resignation of Richard Nixon,02:38:25
The lead seventies in Italy, which was basically a low-intensity civil war.02:38:30
the cultural revolution in China,02:38:32
the Pinochet's military coup in Chile02:38:34
and the list could still go on.02:38:37
You can just open Wikipedia and freak out at everything that was happening in the world.02:38:42
The whole world was having fun and killing itself any way it can.02:38:46
Nothing new.02:38:47
And the UN with all their "let's discuss air" completely missed the goal.02:38:52
Like a preacher accidentaly walking into an orgy.02:38:55
But they didn't give up.02:38:57
They still wanted to have a proper discussion with the states.02:39:01
So the UN has gathered an assembly and went like02:39:05
We have a task of bothering all the national governments,02:39:10
trying to convince them02:39:12
that they need to think about the environment, going around the embassies,02:39:16
and generally working non-stop02:39:20
while everyone calls you a retard behind your backs and that you'd better find a real job.02:39:25
Any takers?02:39:26
And while everyone remained silent, one man let out a sigh and said:02:39:31
I guess I'll try.02:39:33
This man was Maurice Strong. And if Edmund Muskie is considered02:39:37
the father of environmentalism in the US, then Strong02:39:41
is the man who made the movement global.02:39:45
The very first thing he did as ordering a report on the state of the planet's environment.02:39:51
He called it Only one Earth. The care and Maintenance of a Small Planet.02:39:55
This report was comprised of data collected by 158 scientists from 58 countries.02:40:01
Now this report is sold as a book, you can get it from Amazon.02:40:05
Don't mind the authorship of Barbara Ward02:40:09
and Rene Duboe.02:40:10
Strong hired them to write the book because he couldn't do it himself.02:40:13
In 1972 during another UN assembly in Stockholm02:40:19
Strong presents that book and the data it contained.02:40:23
And the data said that everything was bad.02:40:26
If we don't start looking after the environment right now, we're done for.02:40:30
Everyone puts on their serious faces.02:40:33
They decided that a whole new program is needed to deal with the problem.02:40:37
It would take care of the planet's health and all that.02:40:42
called the program like that02:40:44
The program was called UNEP.02:40:46
Strong was appointed as the chief and went on to conquer the world.02:40:50
I don't really get why it's called a program though.02:40:54
Since it is a separate02:40:56
structural unit of the UN.02:40:58
Like, with their own headquarters, offices, staff, budget and all that.02:41:05
Since the UN is a diplomatic organization, its senior members...02:41:11
senior members, have the privilege to kick down any embassy's door02:41:14
and appoint a meeting with any country's government.02:41:19
And if the reason for such meeting is a noble cause02:41:23
like fight for all good,02:41:24
it goes without saying that everyone is happy to see you.02:41:27
Which Strong happily took advantage of.02:41:30
He traveled all the significant countries of the world, sought meetings with all leaders and ruling elites02:41:36
showed them the research results02:41:38
and said that they all needed to get together immediately to take joint action.02:41:44
Since working alone won't do.02:41:47
We all breathe the same air.02:41:49
Meanwhile, a wery important research sees the light.02:41:53
In 1975 an American climatologist Wallace Broecker02:41:58
published an article on climate change.02:42:02
Are we at the brink of global warming?02:42:05
In this article Wallace suggested a possible reversal of the climate trends02:42:11
From the 1940s to the 1970s the trend was02:42:14
general decrease in temperature and Wallace02:42:17
said that in the near future the trend02:42:19
will reverse to heating02:42:21
and we are facing a period of global warming.02:42:24
And this was the first scientific article where this term was mentioned.02:42:29
Once more.02:42:31
Before the seventies the overall temperature dropped and no one bat an eye.02:42:35
but after it started increasing, everyone clenched their buttcheeks.02:42:40
Wallace also argued that you can not just look into one certain factor02:42:45
and you need to observe the system as a whole.02:42:49
Like the atmosphere, polar ice sheets, the ocean02:42:52
and biosphere, since it's all connected.02:42:54
And is to change simultaniously.02:42:57
Wallace's article stirred the whole scientific community.02:43:00
and a large number of scientists started researching globas processes.02:43:04
As we all know from the whole lead thing,02:43:08
that had only been cancelled after twenty years,02:43:10
bigger politics and bigger structures02:43:12
are not quick to change.02:43:15
Strong spent twenty years going to personal meetings02:43:19
with different country leaders.02:43:21
He held discussions, showed them the research results02:43:24
persuaded, scared and inspired people.02:43:26
Anything so that the world leaders02:43:29
started thinking about the environment. For twenty years this guy has been hearing:02:43:33
"Bugger off, kid.02:43:35
We got things to do. A whole bunch of people lives here02:43:38
and they're not going to kill themselves, so we're very busy.02:43:42
As a result of Strong's 20-year-long work,02:43:44
the Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.02:43:48
Under the same roof gathered 8,000 delegates from different countries,02:43:53
along with 3,000 representatives of international non-governmental organizations.02:43:58
That was the largest event in history dedicated to the environment.02:44:05
Its slogan was: "Our last chance to save the planet."02:44:08
the whole agenda was something along the lines of:02:44:11
Guys, either we-02:44:15
immediately do something02:44:20
or we better go to Mars.02:44:21
Oh wait, we can't go to Mars.02:44:24
We don't have the tech.02:44:26
So we have to do something immediately!02:44:29
Naturally, everyone went like:02:44:32
Apparently we have to do something with the environment.02:44:37
Apparently yes. Human lives are important.02:44:40
I wonder if they know we're going to bomb the neighboring countries.02:44:44
But if we make a rocket that won't leave a carbon footprint,02:44:49
they won't mind I think.02:44:50
I love caring about environment.02:44:53
I wonder what if we use the rocket to fuck up the penguins?02:44:56
The most importnt thing that went on the Earth Summit,02:44:59
is that people finally understood02:45:01
that they just had to do something for the environment.02:45:04
The Earth Summit of ninety two was the first large-scale event of this kind that didn't02:45:09
just end with smiles and handshakes.02:45:13
But with signing actual documents.02:45:15
During the Summit 180 countries had signed02:45:19
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.02:45:22
This document recognized climate change on a global scale02:45:27
and implied that all the countires will start working together to solve this problem.02:45:32
There were three main areas that needed to be worked on.02:45:37
The first - reducing the toxicity of industrial emissions02:45:40
and completely banning the lead gasoline.02:45:42
In ninety two TEL was still produced, which would stop only three years later.02:45:48
The second, developing alternative energy sources.02:45:52
To replace fossil fuel.02:45:53
Back then most of the world's energy was generated from fossil fuel, oil, coal, and gas.02:46:00
And how do they get energy from it? By burning it.02:46:03
Yup.02:46:05
That is what technological progress looks like.02:46:09
And when you burn fuel huge volumes02:46:11
a huge volume of environmentalist asses starts burning as well.02:46:15
And to prevent it from happening you need to develop alternatives.02:46:18
The third. Wrong finger.02:46:22
Public transport statushad to be improved.02:46:25
so that people in big cities would start using it instead of personal transport.02:46:31
Less traffic jams, less pollution.02:46:34
The only downside is the bicyclists.02:46:37
But the more bicyclists there are, the less there are.02:46:39
Aside from that they also discussed water supplies.02:46:42
Like, there were too many in the world but the water supply remained the same,02:46:47
Luckily, we're car lovers. A mentally stable lot, so the only liquid of interest for us is gasoline.02:46:52
Forget about water.02:46:54
Basically, what's important is that they had the course.02:46:57
everyone exchanged handshakes and went to work with serious faces.02:47:01
And in 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was also signed.02:47:04
The protocol was the consequence of the framework convention.02:47:08
Roughly speaking,02:47:10
convention meant that they only persuaded people to do something about the environment,02:47:15
While Kyoto protocol was a document02:47:17
that stated certain responsibilities for each country.02:47:21
Something like that.02:47:22
The main goal of the Kyoto protocol02:47:25
was the general reduction of the greenhouse gases into the athmosphere of the Earth,02:47:30
Countries came to an agreement that there were six major enemies of the athmosphere.02:47:35
Carbon dioxide,02:47:37
methane, nitrous oxide,02:47:39
hydrofluorocarbon, perfluorocarbon02:47:42
and sulfur hexafluoride02:47:44
Surprised I managed to spell all that.02:47:45
mortgage from 1 time of the goods, these02:47:49
This stuff is the biggest part of greenhouse gases.02:47:51
In fact, greenhouse gases are-02:47:54
don't throw anything.02:47:57
Are the only reason we're alive.02:47:59
Those gases02:48:00
present in the air are also a part of our athmosphere.02:48:04
They protect us from the direct sun radiation. If they didn't exist,02:48:09
there wouldn't have been life on earth.02:48:12
But environmentalists believe that the extra emissions generated by the industries02:48:17
are increasing this protective blanked.02:48:20
Which would create the greenhouse effect.02:48:24
Ultimately leading to global warming.02:48:27
and when the temperature rises the ice sheets melt.02:48:30
and Venice will be completely washed away.02:48:33
Why is it the problem for environmentalists02:48:36
and not the Venice is a question.02:48:39
Although all they have are gondoliers, let them be.02:48:42
Basically, all these agreements led to the creation of modern European standards for emissions.02:48:48
European emission standard is a document which sets02:48:51
the max level of emissions a car exhausts per kilometer.02:48:55
If some vehicle doesn't fit the norm,02:48:58
it cannot be sold on the territory of the state which adopted the standard.02:49:03
It all started with Euro 1,02:49:05
adopted in 1993, a year after the Earth Summit.02:49:09
In a nutshell, the standard prohibited mechanical carburettors.02:49:13
as they couldn't control the fuel dosage02:49:16
and pour too much, which is a no-no according to Euro 1.02:49:19
Also it introduced mandatory oxygen sensors,02:49:23
AKA lambdas, and fuel vapor recovery systems.02:49:26
Euro 2 implied fuel injection regulations.02:49:30
mono injector was outdated due to its low accuracy.02:49:33
While Euro 4 implied installing Exhaust gas re-circulation system,02:49:38
That system feeds exhausts back into the engine so that the same air could be used twice.02:49:46
It also implied mandatory phase regulator installment.02:49:49
Today, the Euro 6 standard is active in Europe.02:49:53
And Euro 7 is still in development.02:49:55
It is to be adopted in this decade.02:49:58
And right now, like, today02:50:02
there are discussions and bargainings between car companies02:50:05
and the governments over the exact parameters of Euro 7.02:50:09
The question is put this way:02:50:12
will it be possible for internal combustion engines to mmet the standard's requirements at all,02:50:17
or not.02:50:18
While the whole logic behind norms is bringing emissions down to zero.02:50:22
Everyone had figured out,02:50:24
that the biggest evil of all is the engine,02:50:27
and it's needed to restrict the hell out of it.02:50:29
So that emission levels would be zero.02:50:32
That is what the restriction looks like.02:50:35
Because it is impossible to make it so02:50:37
the ICE doesn't emmit anything at all.02:50:40
That considered, all the modern engines02:50:42
that fit the Euro 6 norm,02:50:45
are so clean02:50:47
that they generate less solid particles02:50:50
than worn down brake pads02:50:53
or worn out tires.02:50:55
When you run out of pads, brake discs or rubber that does not mean that they magically evaporated.02:51:04
You just slowly smeared them all over the road you drove your car on.02:51:10
There are more of such solid particles flying off to the athmosphere from your brake discs and pads02:51:16
than the ones that modern internal combustion engines emmit.02:51:20
Even modern diesel engines that fit Euro 602:51:24
are way more eco-friendly than your brake system.02:51:27
Do you remember some movie scenes where they would lock somebody up in a car02:51:32
bring the exhaust pipe there and they eventually suffocated?02:51:36
Well, it's impossible with a modern engine.02:51:40
The only reason for a person to suffocate in such scenario is him using up all the oxygen in the car.02:51:46
But such is the case with any enclosed and unvented place.02:51:50
You could suffocate in your own closet if you make it airtight.02:51:55
So it is physically impossible for the modern engine to kill anybody.02:51:58
Even if you try.02:52:01
But do you think somebody keeps that in mind?02:52:05
Obviously no, common sense and logic are scarce resources.02:52:08
It's easier to put some zeros on the paper and make everyone comply and look for some magic solution.02:52:15
As of now, the Kyoto protocol was replaced by a newer version02:52:19
called Paris Agreement of the year twenty fifteen.02:52:23
Where countries expanded their fronts in the war on CO-two.02:52:27
And mapped out a zero emission strategy.02:52:29
And the car companies started the development of new electric platforms, new technologies, electric vehicles, hydrogen cars and all that noise.02:52:39
It is quite obvious that Euro 7 is the last norm02:52:43
which requirements could be met by traditional internal combustion engine.02:52:48
And then...02:52:50
There will be something different.02:52:52
Something we will drive in our clean and eco-friendly future.02:53:13
Basically, thanks to the strength and determination of Maurice Strong,02:53:18
thanks to the UN,02:53:20
thanks to the scientists and all the indiffirent ones,02:53:23
environmental issues are now actively discussed on a global level.02:53:27
Humanity as a whole is thinking about02:53:31
the state of ecology and nature as a whole.02:53:34
And ecology is a very noble cause for the modern world.02:53:39
It's being discussed and debated02:53:41
and it's used as an argument in the debates.02:53:44
At almost every meeting of the world leaders02:53:48
this question is rised one way or another.02:53:51
And ecology is used as a main argument02:53:54
for giving up the ICE as soon as possible and starting to use some other penguin-friendly type of vehicle.02:54:03
Yup, that's right.02:54:05
I agree with them. I fully support this point of view.02:54:12
There's just one thing.02:54:14
One tiny thing.02:54:16
Which I can't get over.02:54:27
Chapter 9. Last Piece of the Puzzle02:54:38
Year 1981.02:54:41
A lawsuit against a company called ASL resources.02:54:45
was engaged in the sale of oil in Denver, Colorado02:54:49
the company's management was accused02:54:51
of artificially inflating prices02:54:52
of the company's stock before the merging.02:54:54
I hope it's clear why one would inflate stock prices.02:54:58
You inflate the prices, people buy the stock for more money,02:55:01
you withdraw the cash and voila.02:55:03
And the fact that somebody spent more money on you than you really cost02:55:08
is their problem.02:55:10
And so the AZL management forged all their reports02:55:13
inflated their rates, to make more profit.02:55:16
But happily they were grabbed by their asses and the deal was cancelled.02:55:20
And a formal action was already taken against company's management.02:55:23
Please meet the AZL Resources CEO.02:55:27
Oh, you've already met. It's Maurice Strong.02:55:30
Hey, wait a second, kiddo!02:55:33
Didn'tcha just tell me that this man was a bloody saint?02:55:37
And now it turns out that the environmentalists can also be fucking liers?02:55:42
Yup. Despite the fact that all the company and its executives' machinations have been exposed,02:55:47
and the merge has failed, another oil company buys AZL.02:55:52
Tosco. And AZL got away with...02:55:56
just a 4,2 million fine.02:55:59
4,2 million dollars is a very severe punishment02:56:02
for an oil company, yeah.02:56:05
You could collect as much if you look under the couch in the accounting.02:56:08
Here's another class action lawsuit, the state of Colorado, plus the environmentalists,02:56:12
plus some water extracting companies v. AWDI, dating 1992.02:56:16
Not Audi,02:56:18
but AWDI, or American Water Development, Inc.,02:56:21
founded by Maurice Strong.02:56:24
After that deal when AZL managed to sell its asset to Tosco,02:56:29
Maurice left his chair.02:56:30
And purchases a huge ranch in Colorado.02:56:33
which, by some happy coincidence,02:56:36
used to be owned by the Tosco corporation,02:56:39
So, at first this dude tried selling his company02:56:42
at a higher price,02:56:43
he got caught by his ass and fined,02:56:45
then he still manages to sell the company to the other corporation02:56:50
and then, coincidentally02:56:52
comes out of the deal with a plot of land02:56:54
stretching for some puny 65,000 hectares.02:56:59
I'll try to explain what 65,000 hectares are.02:57:04
Imagine a football field.02:57:06
Built according to FIFA recommendations.02:57:09
105 by 68 meters.02:57:11
Well, 65,000 hectares02:57:14
equals 91,036 of such fields.02:57:19
Not that clear yet. You just know that it's a shit load of land, but the whole extent is unknown.02:57:24
I was born in Veliky Novgorod.02:57:26
Not Nizhny Novgorod, thank you very much.02:57:28
Shoutout to all the Astafievs in Nizhny Novgorod.02:57:32
Anyway, my hometown's area is 90 square kilometers,02:57:35
or 9,000 hectares.02:57:37
So Strong's plot of land was roughly the size of seven Veliky Novgorods.02:57:42
This cis even bigger than the city of Kazan,02:57:45
which covers a total area of 50,000 hectares.02:57:48
Basically, that is the size of the ranch Strong got himself there.02:57:52
From the deal money.02:57:55
Initially Strong planned to grow high-protein grains there.02:57:59
to ship to the countries struck with famine.02:58:02
Such a noble mission.02:58:04
mission but in the process of construction02:58:07
But during the construction there was a change of plans02:58:08
and by accident they started building a water extraction plant.02:58:11
To extract the water02:58:13
and sell it.02:58:14
When local activists02:58:16
and the environmental protection commitee witnessed the scales of construction,02:58:19
and the planned capacity of the plant,02:58:22
chills ran down their spines.02:58:25
If the plant was to start working,02:58:27
it would extract water in such volumes that it would have irrevertably damaged the whole region's ecosystem.02:58:33
Just so you understand the scale:02:58:35
at the time there were twenty five water extraction plants.02:58:39
And all them put together extracted less water02:58:42
than the Strong's company planned.02:58:45
Just one company would have sucked the whole state's ecosystem dry.02:58:49
The lawsuit was formod by the whole state. Literally.02:58:52
Well, everyone who knew about this situation. And the court ruled that yes,02:58:56
Strong's company stepped out of line and the plant cannot be opened.02:59:00
Any extraction is not to be allowed.02:59:03
and also ordered the company to cover the legal fees of three million dollars.02:59:07
Baiscally, legal fees are sum that pays the lawyers' work02:59:12
during the trial and all that accumulated over several years.02:59:15
And the company didn't suffer any fines or other forms of punishment.02:59:19
And while the trial went on, Strong was like02:59:22
"Okay, didn't work '. And just left the company.02:59:26
You know. It's Russia, baby.02:59:27
Oh, wait.02:59:30
But, here's my favorite. The lawsuit against Molten Metal Technology.02:59:36
For the inflation of stock prices and the misuse governmental grants.02:59:40
Inflated stock prices sound familiar.02:59:43
That's right, Maurice Strong had become the CEO of this company in 1989.02:59:48
The company developed a technology that allowed the recycling of waste by dissolving it in liquid metal.02:59:53
You just throw shit into the molten metal02:59:57
and it just burns there in some way.03:00:00
Completely dissolving.03:00:03
No harmful emissions and garbage. Well, at least the company said so.03:00:09
Somebody has a good smell for big days.03:00:11
was right before the Earth Summit.03:00:15
And the executive of a waste management company03:00:18
using his diplomatic status as a UN missionary,03:00:21
travels around the world to meet the world leaders and tells them about environmental issues.03:00:26
And casually offers a solution to the waste problem while he's at it.03:00:31
and what does that mean for the company?03:00:33
The fact that just the American department allocated 25 million dollars in grants03:00:39
for waste disposal.03:00:42
The total amount of money the company gathered from03:00:45
all the departments and heads of states is unknown.03:00:48
Everything seems fair. You got the money.03:00:51
You got the waste. Go recycle it. Yes.03:00:54
But the company couldn't fulfill the promised volumes.03:00:57
They had the technology was but it only worked on small test batches.03:01:01
And there was no way this technology could dispose of higher volumes.03:01:06
And Maurice knew it.03:01:08
But still told people on public events that Molten Metal is a perfect technology.03:01:16
And that his company will be able to solve all waste disposal issues.03:01:20
And the company's stock shares skyrocketed.03:01:23
And Strong himself owned 40,000 shares.03:01:27
While 262,000 shares were held by the companies where Strong was the chairman.03:01:34
Quite an argument to inflate the prices.03:01:36
The moment stock prices peaked03:01:39
at around 49 dollars03:01:41
Strong sells all his Molten Metal shares.03:01:45
And the corporations he controlled dumped their shares too.03:01:49
The market was like03:01:50
Wait a sec, what was that?03:01:53
And immediately the information was revealed about it being a scam.03:01:57
Yes, they had the technology, but nobody was going to build a plant.03:02:01
And the shares have plummeted from 49 dollars03:02:04
to 13 cents and the company immediately declares its bankruptcy.03:02:08
Because it wasn't able to refund any money.03:02:10
In the end, here is the statement regarding the whole thing.03:02:15
"The case was settled with 11,8 million dollars in damages without filing a legal complaint".03:02:24
It means, somebody just paid 11,8 million dollars to the US budget03:02:30
and no legal complaint was filed.03:02:33
Where are the 13 million grant money03:02:35
and all the money from the sale of 300,000 shares, that is 15 million dollars more?03:02:40
That's not specified.03:02:41
And no one has any problem with it. The case was settled. Problem solved.03:02:47
Yeah, yup, good job. We've done the same thing with my colleague once.03:02:50
Was he charged with felony though, like we were?03:02:53
Maurice Strong was the senior adviser to the general secretary of the UN assembly,03:02:58
senior adviser to the president of the world bank03:03:01
UNEP founder, head of the Peace Institute,03:03:04
Director of the United Nations African Hunger Relief Program03:03:07
and the Earth Summit organizer03:03:10
A respectable man, why punish him?03:03:13
After all, he's not Russian. Stop picking on him, god damn it!03:03:16
He's a cool dude, nobody's perfect, what can you do.03:03:20
at least he gathered all those parasites03:03:22
and put them to work at that summit. Or whatever.03:03:26
I agree, he done well.03:03:29
Except all the agreements of the Earth Summit were shat on by everyone.03:03:33
From a high tower.03:03:34
Collectively, I must say.03:03:36
Yes, the US has signed the Kyoto protocol,03:03:39
But they didn't ratify it.03:03:41
Ratification means putting it to work.03:03:44
Basically, by signing the document the US has promised that they would apply restrictions.03:03:50
But then they gathered at congress and decided - to hell with those agreements.03:03:55
Canada just withdrew from the agreement03:03:57
and other countries kind of signed it, kind of ratified it,03:04:01
but did nothing of substance afterwards.03:04:05
You know why?03:04:06
Because there was no punishment for non-compliance.03:04:10
Not at all.03:04:12
The guys would just look at you disapprovingly. That's it. They could also point fingers at you.03:04:20
Basically, here's what emission restriction agreements are.03:04:24
Let's see what they mean for each individual country.03:04:29
You might think that now they had to control every production.03:04:33
So that they don't shit in the rivers and pollute the air.03:04:36
Well, not quite.03:04:38
The important thing here is that any restrictions mean a slowdown in economy's development.03:04:43
because you need to rebuild the factories,03:04:45
to close some of them down completely, build the new ones03:04:48
which is expensive.03:04:49
And any expensesthat are aimed not at generating03:04:53
additional profit, but at some third party crap,03:04:56
are the brakes for economical development.03:04:58
Roughly speaking, imagine this.03:05:00
You own a company.03:05:02
You built it, launched a production line and the company started make money03:05:07
where would you rather spend this money.03:05:12
Obviously, it is logical to spend it on on the construction of another production line.03:05:16
Or spend it on the equipment needed to make a new product.03:05:20
Or create more workplaces.03:05:21
Or buy a new building. Basically, anything that allows you to make more money.03:05:27
So that then you could expand even further.03:05:31
And so on, in theory.03:05:33
But what will happen if you spend all the money you made03:05:37
on planting bushes and trees around the corporate territory.03:05:41
It will be green and beautiful, fact.03:05:44
But at such rates the corporation will quickly go banckrupt.03:05:46
Because it will lose the market and get crowed out by the competitors.03:05:50
If you don't develop,03:05:52
you die. That's how market economy works.03:05:55
And basically, the whole situation with the countries and the economies is the same.03:06:01
Just on a global level.03:06:03
And the economies of all countries are different.03:06:05
And they shit into the atmosphere differently.03:06:08
For example, the US with its developed industry,03:06:11
all the enterprises and factories polluted the atmosphere way harder over the past century03:06:16
than, say, India.03:06:18
Where the rapid industrial and economical development had only started recently.03:06:22
What do you do then? Placing the same restrictions on the US and India would be wrong.03:06:26
Because development conditions are unequal.03:06:28
India hadn't polluted the air that much,03:06:31
but will face the same punishment as the US.03:06:34
In that case it turns out that developing countries03:06:37
will never catch up with developed ones.03:06:39
And that is discrimination.03:06:41
And that's what the UN has come up with.03:06:43
all countries have different pace of emissions reduction.03:06:47
Developed countries that have already polluted the air well enough03:06:51
like the US and Europe,03:06:52
should reduce their emmissions immediately.03:06:56
While the developing nations03:06:57
like India, China, Russia03:07:00
and such, which hadn't fucked up the air that much yet.03:07:03
Are allowed to reduce emissions at a slower pace.03:07:05
And if you start fining countries03:07:07
then it is quite possible that the economy that has the money03:07:12
will pollute the environment anyway,03:07:13
since it could afford a fine.03:07:15
And the developing economy couldn't afford such thing.03:07:19
And that would have been a nation-wide discrimination as well.03:07:22
That's why all the restrictions are voluntary.03:07:25
And the funniest thing is that even if you take this mission responsibly,03:07:31
and start acting strictly according to standards,03:07:35
you can still exceed the emission norms03:07:39
because you can buy03:07:40
an additional emission package03:07:42
from another country.03:07:44
Which didn't use its quota up completely.03:07:47
I'm not kidding.03:07:49
Emission standards are now subject to trade.03:07:52
If you want to look good in the UN eyes,03:07:54
without slowing the economy down, buy an additional package.03:07:57
And be a good boy.03:07:58
Basically, pay up03:08:00
and they won't care if you shoot polar bears for breakfast.03:08:04
Well, at least those European fags care about their citizens.03:08:08
They build those electric windmills and nuclear power stations and shit. Good guys.03:08:14
Even though they're ga-03:08:15
Yes, but they've been doing this ever since the oil crisis03:08:20
when OPEC countries grabbed them by the balls.03:08:23
Remember 1973?03:08:25
This whole European green energy obsession traces back to those times.03:08:31
Not the UN and its restrictions.03:08:33
The European Union doesn't have their own oil, their own gas and any other fossil fuel03:08:39
in quantities sufficient enough03:08:41
to allow the adequate way of life.03:08:44
And if they were to only use fossil fuel,03:08:47
they would be dependant on OPEC countries and Russia.03:08:51
Which supplies Europe with gas, for example.03:08:53
And obviously, such a vulnerable position03:08:56
is no good for the EU.03:08:57
And they don't want to rely on oil and gas exporters.03:09:00
And even if the OPEC countries and Russia would behave like good boys,03:09:04
who wouldn't twist the EU's balls,03:09:07
they still wouldn't want the fossil fuel.03:09:10
When there are limited amounts of a resource,03:09:12
its price will always increase over time,03:09:15
because there would be less and less of it.03:09:18
Here's the oil price chart.03:09:20
Here is the gas price chart. Gold. Silver.03:09:26
Platinum.03:09:27
Open the price chart of any other finite resource,03:09:31
and you'll see the same old picture.03:09:34
Over time, it will become too expensive for the EU to live off of fossil fuel03:09:39
and their economy just won't be able to handle it.03:09:42
Have you seen the prices of fuel in the EU?03:09:46
It's like that because everybody lives in luxury,03:09:50
it's just that expensive.03:09:52
And will get even more expensive.03:09:54
And at any moment the supplier country can twist your balls by raising the tariff or cutting off export.03:10:00
And your people will die of cold and hunger.03:10:03
Why be so negative?03:10:05
There must be something like- That Edmund!03:10:09
Muskie! Who became the governor03:10:12
He stopped the lead, what a guy!03:10:16
Edmund Muskie was a member of the Democratic Party.03:10:20
And by the time Muskie has entered the political arena,03:10:23
the country was ruled by Respublicans.03:10:26
And his state of Maine03:10:27
was respublican to the bone.03:10:31
And the only way to beat a powerful party at the campaign03:10:36
is to play on social discontent and promise the people03:10:39
that you would solve their problems. And people back then cared about the environment.03:10:44
Muskie took advantage of it.03:10:46
And when the party saw that one of the local candidates had played the environment card,03:10:52
and he became a governor in a state where he had no support,03:10:57
they started pushing the same agenda across the nation.03:11:00
And supported the Muskie's rhetorics.03:11:03
Because people hoped03:11:05
and were ready to vote for someone who would take care of their environmental problems.03:11:09
And politicians are the ones who play on people's feelings and trust. With no exception.03:11:16
The real problem03:11:18
Edmund dealt with was the reduction in working-age population.03:11:23
People born during the prosperous 1910s and 1920s03:11:28
were now too close to retirement03:11:30
and very soon they would become an expenditure part of the budget.03:11:33
And there were too little young people born in the thirties and the forties.03:11:38
Since the thirties were the age of great depression03:11:41
when people just couldn't afford children,03:11:43
and in the forties the war happened.03:11:45
And if this already small stratum of citizens03:11:49
started dying due to the environmental problems,03:11:53
The economy would have collapsed.03:11:55
You only have people to pay pensions to and no workers.03:11:59
And you wouldn't come to the people saying:03:12:03
Guys, here's the thing.03:12:06
I need to figure out the way so that you could carry us a little bit more.03:12:11
So that we make enough dubget money off of you03:12:15
while the new babies are growing.03:12:17
So now we'll just improve your working and living conditions a little03:12:22
just don't die yet, please.03:12:24
We still need your taxes.03:12:26
People would lynch you if you put it that way.03:12:30
That's why the environment.03:12:33
And caring for the future generations.03:12:36
The lead03:12:37
by the same logic, was only cancelled the moment when03:12:41
there appeared the research,03:12:43
that the new generation that grew up with lead has lower IQ03:12:48
than the last one.03:12:49
And dumb citizens mean the increased agression, increased crime rates03:12:53
which leads to further budget expenses.03:12:57
And you can't profit off of these people because they're dumb.03:13:00
Therefore, several billion lead dollars here and now became a less profitable option03:13:06
than another generation being lost.03:13:08
And by the same logic, the first deaths at Ethyl plant were ignored by everyone including the government.03:13:14
Several dozens of people dead and a few more mental asylum clients is a reasonable price03:13:20
for the billions of dollars and thousands of workplaces.03:13:24
This is an extremely reasonable price.03:13:27
Now, Patterson...03:13:29
he was a man who genuinely worried about the health of people,03:13:33
But it wasn't the holy righteousness that moved him.03:13:37
It was the immesuarable guilt he felt towards humanity03:13:40
that was eating him from the inside for that03:13:43
he helped building the nucear bomb03:13:46
that was dropped on Japan.03:13:48
What else do we have? The prohibition law?03:13:51
Any guesses?03:13:54
Remember all the righteous speeches of the holy fathers and activist03:13:58
about America drowning in drunkenness and the cleansing of soul.03:14:03
Who's behind this?03:14:04
Who's the main beneficiary?03:14:08
That's right, Standard Oil.03:14:09
Rockefeller was a proud sponsor of the anti-alcohol movement,03:14:14
because he was a righteous, god-fearing christian, and all that,03:14:19
as he used to say.03:14:21
He openly contributed to03:14:25
the Anti-Saloon League and expressed his support.03:14:29
Plus, he would always visit the sermons of the holy fathers03:14:32
who supported the dry law, and they held lengthy discussions.03:14:36
He said that they were doing god's work03:14:38
for the good of the nation.03:14:40
Whether Rockefeller's faith in god and sobriety was sincere is up to you,03:14:46
but this man's faith in dollar was unquestionable.03:14:50
And ethanol and all of its products03:14:53
were the largest Standard Oil competitors at the time.03:14:55
Remember how I said ethanol was the alternative?03:15:00
Rockefeller killed this alternative off with the Prohibition Law.03:15:03
With all his power and possibilities,03:15:07
just like this Otto Kepler cartoon,03:15:10
giving almost unlimited funds to the activist movements03:15:14
and then pushing the law through administrative leverages03:15:18
was a doable task.03:15:20
Well, when you say the word "Rockefeller",03:15:24
a whole bunch of conspiracy theories immediately comes to mind.03:15:29
Masons, reptilians, and crap like that.03:15:31
I don't care about these fairy tales.03:15:35
I always look into what people actually do.03:15:38
And in the 1910s when the anti-alcohol movement was gaining momentum,03:15:43
Rockefeller and his whole family openly stated that they were supporting the activists.03:15:49
But the fact that they were to kill off their competitors in oil and car industry was left out.03:15:55
And you know what the Rockefeller Foundation does now?03:15:59
They are supporting the development of alternative energy sources.03:16:03
Any way they can.03:16:05
And they happily tell that on every corner.03:16:10
For example, recently Rockefeller Foundation representatives made a statement03:16:14
that they were withdrawing their funds from companies engaged in fossil fuel extraction03:16:19
and transferring them in the development of alternatives.03:16:23
And naturally, it was all served under the sauce of them saving the planet from terrible hydrocarbons.03:16:31
But answering smart people's smart questions in private they said03:16:35
that it was simply no longer profitable to keep their funds in that field.03:16:40
While the alternative sources is a new and - if I may say so - hype niche,03:16:46
and in perspective it could be more profitable.03:16:49
And if you also create the aura of nobility while you're at it,03:16:54
you're gravy.03:16:56
You know who else invests in the alternatives?03:17:01
OPEC.03:17:02
Sheikhs are now loading all available funds in the development of new energy sources.03:17:11
And do you really think these guys are worried over some piece of ice with penguens?03:17:17
Standard oil is a company that appeared a century and a half ago03:17:22
from a small shittown factory.03:17:24
And then it became a colossus with global power.03:17:29
And OPEC are the people who had nothing but a camel 80-90 years ago.03:17:37
Now they are equals to all the world elites.03:17:40
And when you rose from some literal shithole03:17:43
and became a global power, would you want to lose it?03:17:48
Obviously no.03:17:50
And since elimination of carbon has already been agreed on and is just a matter of time,03:17:55
the power of the suppliers and exporting countries03:17:59
is a matter of time as well.03:18:01
If they don't do anything about it that is.03:18:05
That's why now everyone rushed headfirst into alternatives.03:18:11
Since the first one to take the niche03:18:14
will secure dominance and will rule the world.03:18:17
But no one wants to mention that.03:18:21
Just like in the beginning of the 20th century no one mentioned that the Prohibition03:18:26
was just a way to get rid of competitors.03:18:29
When the anti-alcohol movement was gaining momentum,03:18:32
Rockefeller and the oil industry cried on every corner03:18:35
that alcohol was killing us and our future generations.03:18:39
But righteousness was not the case there.03:18:42
It was profit.03:18:44
They wanted the fuel market03:18:46
and ethanol had to be crowed out of it.03:18:48
If you replace alcohol with carbon footprint and the global warning in the 20th century slogans,03:18:56
and you'll get the same thing.03:18:58
And just as they waged the war on alcohol to win the market,03:19:02
now they wage the war on hydrocarbons for the market.03:19:06
And it's done by the same people.03:19:09
Life is a very ironic thing.03:19:13
Sometimes when you look into the events that unfolded, their reasons03:19:17
and their consequences, and you just start laughing homerically.03:19:22
Because the prohibition law03:19:24
which the authorities and the church promoted, so that America would cleanse its soul03:19:30
and came back to the path of righteousness,03:19:32
led to the fact03:19:34
that the powerful and world-famous American mafia came to be.03:19:39
The black alcohol market appeared,03:19:42
so the criminals had a lot of resources on their hands,03:19:46
and the corruption levels grew tenfold.03:19:49
Because all underground bars needed police protection.03:19:52
And by the time prohibition was lifted,03:19:54
the alcohol problem had been even worse than by the time it was adopted.03:19:59
Americans started drinking even more03:20:01
and the only man to be a winner03:20:04
was Standard Oil.03:20:06
The gas station network and the car industry.03:20:08
Which grew by leaps.03:20:10
When the prohibition was lifted,03:20:12
Rockefeller had an interview03:20:14
where he said he regretted taking part in the creation of the prohibition law03:20:18
and apologized to citizens.03:20:21
All in all, one sad interview03:20:24
is not such a big price for market domination.03:20:27
And when I found the next fact,03:20:30
I went like: "Fuck, no."03:20:33
Do you know who was the most prominent participant of the world's politics of03:20:38
all the former Standard Oil companies' representatives?03:20:41
And the spokesperson for the family's interests.03:20:45
Maurice Strong.03:20:47
In his youth he was an oilman.03:20:49
At first he participated in stock trade,03:20:51
and generally studied the oil industry.03:20:54
He met the Standard Oil managers03:20:57
and they pushed him for the UN.03:20:59
As a volunteer, just so that he would make some acquaintances.03:21:04
In the UN he met one of the chief accountants,03:21:08
who introduced him to David Rockefeller.03:21:11
Johnny's grandson.03:21:13
Maurice told all that himself, by the way.03:21:16
Along with the UN,03:21:17
Strong worked as an assistant to Jack Gallagher's03:21:20
the CEO of an ex-Standard Oil company in Canada.03:21:23
Then Strong worked in Africa.03:21:26
The UN missions on humanitarian aid to the region and all that.03:21:30
And at the same time he managed a branch of Caltex.03:21:34
An African Standard Oil subsidiary.03:21:37
When Strong decided to merge AZL Resources,03:21:40
he shared the company's board with Standard Oil managers.03:21:44
And the Tosco company, which bought AZL03:21:47
was an ex Standard Oil company in Ohio03:21:51
To which the iron mining plant was attached.03:21:55
Wherever you look in the oil industry, you will always find Standard Oil.03:22:01
As for the 1972 UN summit which led to the creation of the UNEP, Environment Programme and all that,03:22:08
Maurice's presentation speech03:22:10
was written by the Standard Oil PR department.03:22:12
And the headquarters of UNEP that UN conservation program,03:22:17
was built in the city of Nairobi,03:22:20
in which the Caltex office is also located.03:22:23
As well as Standard's03:22:25
Any questions03:22:27
on why there were so many lawsuits with little to no punishment?03:22:31
I have none.03:22:33
Here's one last fun fact about the father of environmentalism and we'll leave him alone.03:22:39
To hell with him. Strong had died just recently.03:22:43
A few years ago.03:22:45
Obviously, he was buried as the father of the world's environmental movement.03:22:50
The most righteous man who fought for our mother nature.03:22:54
Can you guess,03:22:56
what have this man left behind him aside from his enormous fortune?03:23:02
He left an eco-hotel03:23:05
for his son.03:23:08
It was built in a protected area in Costa-Rica,03:23:12
Where construction and deforestation are prohibited.03:23:15
You can't cut down nature reserves and start constructions there.03:23:18
But if you're an environmentalist and a respected one03:23:20
do what you want. You're good.03:23:23
But let's get back to the cars.03:23:27
The fourth hour of the documentary is just about time.03:23:30
since the zero emission strategy was adopted after all,03:23:35
we're being robbed of ICE.03:23:37
For the good of the nature.03:23:40
You know.03:23:41
Okay, but what do we get in exchange?03:23:44
Now there are two options.03:23:47
First one are the battery-powered electric cars03:23:50
which must be charged from the outlet.03:23:52
and the second is hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.03:23:55
Hydrogen vehicles are cars with a chemical generator that works on liquefied hydrogen03:24:01
and generates electricity.03:24:03
Electricity is supplied to the battery that power the electric engine and the car goes.03:24:07
For the user, they will be very similar to a regular car.03:24:10
Fuel it with hydrogen and go.03:24:12
But first03:24:13
let's find out how the energy is generated in our world.03:24:18
Here are the statistics for today03:24:21
Here we see that 85% of the energy is still obtained from carbohydrate combustion.03:24:27
Do not confuse electric energy and the energy.03:24:30
Those are different.03:24:31
Electrical energy is what you have in your outlets03:24:34
and the energy is all the power that is generated in the entire world.03:24:39
If you only look at the electricity,03:24:42
which is a part of the energy as a whole,03:24:45
the situation is not so different.03:24:48
As of now, 63,3% of all electricity03:24:54
is generated by fossil fuel combustion.03:24:57
Mainly coal.03:24:59
While in the year 2000 fossil fuels made 64,8%.03:25:05
In 21 years the share decreased just by 1,5%.03:25:11
We're making giant leaps to become green, yeah.03:25:14
But let's imagine that there's a solution.03:25:18
They will improve the windmills, solar panels03:25:21
build more hydroelectric power plants, nuclear plants and all that.03:25:25
Let's also suppose that they are going to get the wires everywhere,03:25:29
so that there would be an outlet on every corner03:25:32
and you could charge your electric car anywhere.03:25:35
Let's move to that fairy world and think03:25:38
what the fuck are we going to do with the batteries.03:25:41
First, let's find out what a battery is.03:25:45
Depending on its type there can be a lot of interesting stuff.03:25:50
For example, the battery that you have under the hood of a gas-fueled car03:25:54
is usually lead-acidic.03:25:56
Which means, if we do some mental gymnastics, we can tell that it contains lead03:26:02
lead dioxide and sulfuric acid solution.03:26:06
Very eco-friendly.03:26:08
What's especially fun is watching those Indians deal with dead batteries.03:26:12
But these are Indians, they're not human, the important thing is03:26:16
that the acid is not being spilled in Europe.03:26:18
But okay, to hell with the lead-acidic batteries.03:26:22
After all, when they prohibit the ICE they would stop making those as well. Big deal.03:26:26
We're more interested in lithium-ion batteries.03:26:30
Since they are installed in all the electric cars03:26:32
and basically they power modern gadgets.03:26:35
Pocket electronics and everything that can work autonomously.03:26:40
Obviously, the main element of such battery is lithium.03:26:45
Basically, in the modern world, lithium is the new oil.03:26:49
The demand and the volume of lithium use has been growing exponentially in the last thirty years.03:26:54
The first lithium battery was created in 1991 and now03:26:59
the lithium that no one cared about turned into one of the the most economically demanded materials.03:27:07
Also, the lithium is praised by the people concerned with saving the world03:27:11
from the terrible carbohydrates03:27:13
which are extracted from the depths of our holy03:27:16
Earth-mother.03:27:19
And where the fuck does the lithium come from?03:27:21
Obviously, it comes from space on the futuristic eco-friendly starship03:27:26
and gets dropped off into the virgin forests.03:27:28
Yeah, right.03:27:29
I was sarcastic, if you didn't catch that yet.03:27:32
Lithium is either mined from the rock enriched with lithium or salt marshes03:27:37
which also contain a lot of lithium.03:27:39
And the largest-scale extraction of lithium, for example, is developed in Chile03:27:43
and Africa.03:27:44
How much rock does it take to mine to extract one ton of lithium?03:27:51
Ten tons? Fifty tons? Yeah, right.03:27:54
To get one ton of lithium, just one,03:27:58
you need 250 tons of rock.03:28:01
If you extract it from the salt marshes,03:28:04
you need to process 750 tons of salt03:28:09
to get a ton of lithium.03:28:11
Also, lithium can only be purified chemically,03:28:15
which means that the rock and the saline03:28:18
can not be used for any other purposes03:28:21
after the extraction of lithium.03:28:23
It all just goes to waste.03:28:25
When some oil spillage accident happens,03:28:28
it's an ecological disaster.03:28:30
And when someone deliberately spills tons of chemicals from the lithium exctraction,03:28:36
it's the righteous waste for the good of nature.03:28:38
Make notice.03:28:40
Moreover, to mine one tone of lithium you need to evaporate 1,900 tons of fresh water.03:28:48
And you know who would find a use for that water?03:28:51
Chileans.03:28:52
Farmers in Chile are forced to import water from other countries to water their fields03:28:57
because all the fucking water is used on lithium.03:28:59
And if anything goes wrong,03:29:01
if there is some kind of drought or something like that,03:29:04
Chilean population is immediately left without food and water.03:29:08
Not to mention the amount of CO-two emitted during the lithium extraction.03:29:13
But the entirety of righteous and green Europe03:29:16
is not affected.03:29:18
Lithium plants are not located in Europe,03:29:21
so let these plebeians deal with its aftermath on their own.03:29:24
While we live an eco-friendly life with a happy face and an eco-badge on the refrigerator.03:29:30
In addition to lithium, there's also cobalt in the batteries03:29:33
Which is a way more rare metal. And almost all of the cobalt in the world is extracted in Congo.03:29:39
It's a poor country in Africa with an unstable power balance, economy and jurisdiction.03:29:44
Cobalt is one of the primary things the country lives off of and it is extracted from mines.03:29:51
And you know who extracts cobalt from these mines?03:29:55
Children.03:29:57
Well, there are adults too, because the kids need to be overseered.03:30:00
But still, the children work there.03:30:03
Cobalt, just like lithium has been actively extracted for thirty years.03:30:06
And they really used child labor on these mines.03:30:11
Can you guess, what changed over thirty years of the cobalt mining in Congo?03:30:15
Nothing.03:30:17
They just gave birth to more children because the old ones got worn out, that's it.03:30:21
The UN occasionally tries to protest against child labor, but Congo just asks: "Do you need cobalt? "03:30:26
"Yes."03:30:28
"So buy it and leave our children alone."03:30:31
They have a shift tomorrow.03:30:33
Tons of rock processed and thrown to waste.03:30:37
Food and water shortages, child labor03:30:40
and hellish working conditions is somewhere out there.03:30:44
Not here.03:30:46
Not in Europe.03:30:47
Here we have diesel Passats, that is the real problem.03:30:50
Look at how scary it is.03:30:53
And children are expendable, those guys can get new ones.03:30:56
We're concerned about ecology.03:30:59
But the lithium and cobalt production03:31:01
is half the trouble.03:31:03
Everyone heard that a discarded battery poisons so and so meters of soil.03:31:08
Cubic meters that is.03:31:11
And yes, it does, If you just discard the battery,03:31:14
due to the chemicals it contains it will poison the soil,03:31:18
the subterranean waters03:31:20
and generally kill all life around it.03:31:23
That is true. And I have a question.03:31:26
What do we do with the batteries? The correct answer03:31:30
is disposal.03:31:31
That's right.03:31:33
Everybody had seen these containers where concerned people03:31:36
collect batteries to then bring them to the right disposal.03:31:41
Do you know what percentage of the total amount of batteries in the world gets recycled?03:31:47
Not in Russia, in the world.03:31:49
The world with all the activists, feminist, LGBT movements and such.03:31:55
So?03:31:56
Two thirds? Okay, that is too much.03:31:59
Half at least, I hope.03:32:01
A half would have been an improvement. Only 5%.03:32:05
Five fucking percent of the batteries are properly disposed of.03:32:09
All the rest is just thrown to waste03:32:12
Or gets buried.03:32:14
Not because no one collects them.03:32:17
But because there's nowhere to dispose of them.03:32:19
Come on, what are you talking about?03:32:21
You just don't get it.03:32:23
It's just that there are too many batteries,03:32:25
so there is no need for disposal plants. But when they make more,03:32:28
there will be more plants constructed as well. That's it.03:32:32
Yeah, okay, right.03:32:34
Do you know how they dispose of batteries? You don't?03:32:39
They get burned.03:32:40
No joke. They burn them.03:32:43
Wait, what about the emissions that the battery burning produces?03:32:47
They must be toxic.03:32:49
Yes, that's right. They are.03:32:51
And nobody gives a fuck.03:32:53
Not to mention that you can't burn it completely, by the way.03:32:57
There's still a bunch of shit left after burning. What do they do with it?03:33:01
Any guesses? They bury it, yes.03:33:05
Eco-friendly. That's right.03:33:07
So far there is no efficient battery disposal technology.03:33:12
There's a bunch of experimental technologies, but they're expensive.03:33:16
And not a single one proved to be successful.03:33:19
At this point it all comes down to the molten metal technology.03:33:23
The one that the whole Strong's fraud revolved around.03:33:27
There are two main methods for battery disposal.03:33:32
And both don't work, by the way. The first one implies burning them, as I said.03:33:37
This method is called pyro-metallurgical.03:33:40
The second one implies dissolving the contents of batteries in chemicals.03:33:44
This method is called hydrometallurgical.03:33:47
But none of the two can be used on industrial scale.03:33:52
Here's why.03:33:53
The whole idea of recycling means that you should be able to disassemble the battery03:33:57
do something to it, and then put the materials you got back into battery production.03:34:03
Like aluminum cans, for example.03:34:05
Crash a can, melt it and send it back to the conveyor belt.03:34:10
Perfect.03:34:11
But recycling a can is that simple because it's just aluminum.03:34:16
And all the cans are the same.03:34:17
No need to disassemble it.03:34:19
Just crush it and make another. Simple as that.03:34:22
But the thing with an electric car battery is03:34:25
that before you could recycle it you have to at least disassemble it.03:34:29
Here's what the battery looks like.03:34:32
Basically, it is a huge monolithic plate made of smaller batteries.03:34:37
Like a wall that is made of smaller bricks, a battery is made of the smaller ones.03:34:43
Which are glued to each other with a special glue for greater resistance.03:34:46
And if you were to disassemble the battery,03:34:49
how would you do it?03:34:51
The glue is strong.03:34:53
And all the companies use different ones.03:34:56
Tesla, for instance, uses some kind of secret alloy to fill the space between the cells.03:35:01
And when batteries differ in size and toughness, you can only disassemble it with your own hands.03:35:08
And the modern batteries are manually disassembled before disposal.03:35:13
By the hands of an actual person.03:35:16
Can they suffer chemical burns? They can.03:35:19
Can they get poisoned? Yes, the working conditions imply it.03:35:22
You can't mechanise this process,03:35:25
A robot wouldn't know if the battery is slightly thicker or slightly tougher03:35:34
or uses different glue.03:35:35
It needs thousands of similar batteries to work efficiently.03:35:40
And that is completely impossible, because all cars are different.03:35:44
All have different attachment points, shape, capacity and so on.03:35:49
But let's assume03:35:51
that a little kid from Africa or China managed to disassemble a battery.03:35:56
What do we do then?03:35:57
To prepare the material for future reuse,03:36:03
we should sort it into piles03:36:05
and purify the impurities.03:36:07
Without damaging it in the process.03:36:09
And that is the main problem.03:36:11
The burning, the chemical cleaning or any other of the modern methods03:36:16
can give you material pure enough to use in production.03:36:21
Roughly speaking, if you remember the aluminum cans03:36:24
what would happen, if the material03:36:27
had 10% of some other shit after reprocessing?03:36:32
Obviously, no one would accept this material for production,03:36:36
because the technology implies only the use of pure aluminum.03:36:40
Otherwise you can't make a can.03:36:42
Which means that you need another technology03:36:47
to separate these 10% of shit from aluminum03:36:50
and get the pure material.03:36:52
But the use of additional technologies is expensive.03:36:56
So the end product is more expensive too.03:36:59
As a result, the recycled aluminum would cost much more03:37:04
than the regular aluminum.03:37:07
And who would want such aluminum?03:37:10
That's right, no one.03:37:12
So that is the kind of shit that goes on with the batteries.03:37:15
All the recycled raw materials are not only expensive,03:37:20
but also impure.03:37:22
Nor cobalt, nor lithium nor any other valuable metal03:37:25
turns out to be as pure as freshly mined one.03:37:30
And the mining is much cheaper.03:37:32
Why would you buy the recycled one?03:37:35
That's right, you wouldn't.03:37:37
And all the batteries that had been produced by this point,03:37:41
are designed in a way that makes them impossible to recycle.03:37:45
They all differ in size and composition,03:37:48
they all differ in materials and design.03:37:51
And there is no technology for their disposal and there can not be one.03:37:57
To be recycled all the batteries need to be identical03:38:00
like two drops of water, like aluminum cans.03:38:03
But that is impossible due to their complex design.03:38:07
All the modern lithium batteries03:38:10
that have been made by this point03:38:12
and the ones to be produced in the next ten to fifteen years,03:38:16
will either be burned with the remains buried or just buried.03:38:21
No other way.03:38:23
The only option is to put a significant amount of people to work03:38:27
and disassemble them to smaller parts, just to bury them anyway.03:38:31
And the production of such batteries is gaining momentum03:38:34
while the green activists happily clap their hands03:38:37
along with dumbasses who can't see the forest for the trees.03:38:40
And you know what happens to the batteriesy on junkyards?03:38:43
They poison the soil,03:38:45
poisuns the groundwater03:38:47
and kills vegetation.03:38:49
All of the battery contents are reactive and hazardous substances.03:38:54
And if you leave large amounts of them just lying around,03:38:58
all the living things in the area will quickly perish.03:39:01
And as soon as the sales of electric cars with these non-recycable batteries skyrocket,03:39:07
eventually all these batteries will end up in the ground.03:39:11
It's a matter of time, unfortunately.03:39:15
And giving up modern vehicles with internal combustion engines03:39:19
and all their exhaust fume filtering systems03:39:22
for electric vehicles03:39:24
is about the same as quitting smoking03:39:27
by switching to heroin.03:39:29
And the science community is crying danger as hard as they can.03:39:34
But you think someone is listening to scientists?03:39:38
No.03:39:39
It's just like with the scientists03:39:41
who once studied the dangers of leaded fuel.03:39:45
And once again, I can not help but notice the irony in the fact03:39:49
that the battery that you have under the hood of your car right now03:39:53
is made out of lead.03:39:55
Lithium-ion batteries are no better in any fucking way.03:39:59
Just as carbon fluorine.03:40:02
Any battery is toxic.03:40:03
But no one cares.03:40:06
They just put on an "eco" badge.03:40:09
Proudly thinking that they are saving the planet.03:40:12
The main idea03:40:13
behind all the restrictions and concerns regarding the environment sound03:40:18
something like this:03:40:19
"Let's think about the world our children will inhabit.03:40:23
Let's preserve nature for future generations:.03:40:26
And similar populist bullshit.03:40:29
The reality behind all this is actually more like that:03:40:32
"We've experimented enough on our generations,03:40:36
with the lead and exhausts, and the result was not that good.03:40:41
so let's experiment on our children03:40:44
and grandchildren with toxic batteries.03:40:47
We will make some decisions,03:40:50
make some money and brownie-points,03:40:52
and the afthermath of the experiment is for future generations to deal with.03:40:56
Let them think for themselves03:40:58
what they'll do with toxic batteries killing the planet."03:41:01
Why am I telling you all this?03:41:04
We'll have to give up the traditional ICE, that is a fact.03:41:09
That has already been decided on.03:41:11
But that restriction03:41:13
was dictated not because of some bears03:41:15
or some ice sheets.03:41:17
Oil and gasoline are not just something that we fill our cars with03:41:22
or watch the prices go up on the TV.03:41:24
It's a resource.03:41:25
An important resource that makes the whole economy go round.03:41:29
It's important because it is profitable.03:41:31
And such climate was created deliberately.03:41:35
The people and Standard Oil saw potential in it03:41:37
and decided to make the whole car industry depend on gasoline.03:41:40
Which they sold to the entire world.03:41:43
Just like during the tetraethyl lead crisis, all authorities and governmental bodies03:41:48
were ready to sacrifice several dozen lives to the industry,03:41:52
Because Standard Oil and GM needed their profit03:41:55
and provided thousands of workplaces.03:41:58
They didn't just profit themselves,03:42:00
they fed thousands of families while also moving the national economy forward.03:42:04
And when scientists swooped don't on them saying that the whole country is covered in lead,03:42:08
lawyers at their meetings said that dirty money are better than an empty stomach.03:42:13
And they were also right.03:42:15
So everything we see today03:42:18
is just a redistribution of power and resources03:42:21
under the guise of them being so fucking green03:42:24
and compassionate.03:42:26
Modern ecology is a bargaining chip03:42:28
that is played in front of the masses03:42:30
to sooze their brain.03:42:32
The idea of suffering for the sake of future generations03:42:35
is always the argument to justify any bullshit.03:42:39
It is used only then,03:42:41
when there are no other arguments.03:42:43
Remember any dictatorship,03:42:45
remember any of the terrible things that happen in the world.03:42:49
In all cases people were told03:42:51
that it's all for the sake of their children, the freedom and all that...03:42:55
Bullshit.03:42:56
As I told you in the beginning,03:42:58
in the kerosene and blubber story.03:43:00
The whales were only left alone when cheaper and more convenient fuel appeared03:43:06
The same with ecology.03:43:08
Ecology, the real one,03:43:10
is needed and wanted by everyone only on one condition.03:43:14
If it is profitable.03:43:16
Here and now, in monetary gains.03:43:19
Because even the deaths,03:43:21
no matter how much of a tragedy they are,03:43:24
only concern the governments and the big shots03:43:27
just because of the fact that human casualties03:43:30
are unprofitable.03:43:31
Any person born in any country in the world03:43:34
requires money spent on them.03:43:36
Government invests in each citizen with health care,03:43:39
education, infrastructure everything else.03:43:43
Anything that you got for free as a citizen,03:43:47
nursery home, kindergarten, school, university,03:43:50
medicine, infrastructure and all that noise,03:43:51
was all paid for by the government with our own taxes.03:43:55
And it's all done with one thing in mind.03:43:57
A healthy03:43:58
educated and able-bodied citizen03:44:01
will work and pay taxes.03:44:04
They will not only return the invested money,03:44:07
but also bring dividends.03:44:09
By paying taxes all their life.03:44:12
That's how economy works.Description:
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